hat
Sentiment has been down to Barchester, and got up the whole story
there; indeed, I thought he must have had it all from you; it's very
well done, as you'll see: his first numbers always are."

Bold declared that Mr Sentiment had got nothing from him, and that he
was deeply grieved to find that the case had become so notorious.

"The fire has gone too far to be quenched," said Towers; "the building
must go now; and as the timbers are all rotten, why, I should be
inclined to say, the sooner the better. I expected to see you get
some _eclat_ in the matter."

This was all wormwood to Bold. He had done enough to make his friend
the warden miserable for life, and had then backed out just when the
success of his project was sufficient to make the question one of real
interest. How weakly he had managed his business! he had already
done the harm, and then stayed his hand when the good which he had in
view was to be commenced. How delightful would it have been to have
employed all his energy in such a cause,--to have been backed by _The
Jupiter_, and written up to by two of the most popular authors of the
day! The idea opened a view into the very world in which he wished
to live. To what might it not have given rise? what delightful
intimacies,--what public praise,--to what Athenian banquets and rich
flavour of Attic salt?

This, however, was now past hope. He had pledged himself to abandon
the cause; and could he have forgotten the pledge, he had gone too far
to retreat. He was now, this moment, sitting in Tom Towers' room with
the object of deprecating any further articles in _The Jupiter_, and,
greatly as he disliked the job, his petition to that effect must be
made.

"I couldn't continue it," said he, "because I found I was in the
wrong."

Tom Towers shrugged his shoulders. How could a successful man be in
the wrong! "In that case," said he, "of course you must abandon it."

"And I called this morning to ask you also to abandon it," said Bold.

"To ask me," said Tom Towers, with the most placid of smiles, and a
consummate look of gentle surprise, as though Tom Towers was well
aware that he of all men was the last to meddle in such matters.

"Yes," said Bold, almost trembling with hesitation. "_The Jupiter_,
you know, has taken the matter up very strongly. Mr Harding has felt
what it has said deeply; and I thought that if I could explain to you
that he personally has not been to blame, these article