Put shortly they came to this. She was being summoned
for debt. She wanted more money and would have it. If five hundred
pounds were not forthcoming and that shortly--within a week, indeed--
she threatened with no uncertain voice to journey down to Boisingham
and put him to an open shame.
"Great heavens!" he said, "this woman will destroy me. What a devil!
And she'd be as good as her word unless I found her the money. I must
go up to town at once. I wonder how she got that idea into her head.
It makes me shudder to think of her in Boisingham," and he dropped his
face upon his hands and groaned in the bitterness of his heart.
"It is hard," he thought to himself; "here have I for years and years
been striving and toiling, labouring to become a respectable and
respected member of society, but always this old folly haunts my steps
and drags me down, and by heaven I believe that it will destroy me
after all." With a sigh he lifted his head, and taking a sheet of
paper wrote on it, "I have received your letter, and will come and see
you to-morrow or the next day." This note he placed in an envelope,
which he directed to the high-sounding name of Mrs. d'Aubigne, Rupert
St., Pimlico--and put it in his pocket.
Then with another sigh he took up the Squire's letter, and glanced
through it.
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