pay them? I can assure you I should be
glad to be relieved from the honour."

"I merely said that I had not yet made any proposition respecting them.
Of course, I expect your assistance. Failing you, I have no resource
but the Jews. I should regret to put the property into their hands;
especially as, hitherto, I have not raised money on post obits [24]."

[FOOTNOTE 24: post obit--a loan that need not be repaid until
the death of a specified individual, usually
someone from whom the borrower expected to inherit
enough to repay the loan]

"At any rate, I'm glad of that," said the father, willing to admit any
excuse for returning to his good humour. "That would be ruin; and I
hope that anything short of that may be--may be--may be done something
with."

The expression was not dignified, and it pained the earl to make it;
but it was expressive, and he didn't wish at once to say that he had a
proposal for paying off his son's debts. "But now, Kilcullen, tell me
fairly, in round figures, what do you think you owe?--as near as you
can guess, without going to pen and paper, you know?"

"Well, my lord, if you will allow me, I will make a proposition to you.
If you will hand over to Mr Jervis fifty thousand pounds, for him to
pay such claims as have already been made upon him as your agent, and
such other debts as I may have sent in to him: and if you will give
myself thirty thousand, to pay such debts as I do not choose to have
paid by an agent, I will undertake to have everything settled."

"Eighty thousand pounds in four years! Why, Kilcullen, what have you
done with it?--where has it gone? You have five thousand a-year, no
house to keep up, no property to support, no tenants to satisfy, no
rates to pay--five thousand a-year for your own personal expenses--and,
in four years, you have got eighty thousand in debt! The property
never can stand that, you know. It never can stand at that rate. Why,
Kilcullen, what have you done with it?"

"Mr Crockford has a portion of it, and John Scott has some of it. A
great deal of it is scattered rather widely--so widely that it would be
difficult now to trace it. But, my lord, it has gone. I won't deny that
the greater portion of it has been lost at play, or on the turf. I
trust I may, in future, be more fortunate and more cautious."

"I trust so. I trust so, indeed. Eighty thousand pounds! And do you
think I can raise su