voices, lest all they said should become common property of
the neighbourhood. For the privilege of occupying such a residence, 'the
interior,' said advertisement, 'handsomely decorated,' they were racked
with an expenditure which, away in the sweet-scented country, would have
housed them amid garden graces and orchard fruitfulness.

At this time, Mr. Morgan had joined an acquaintance in the establishment
of a debt-collecting agency; his partner provided the modest capital
needful for such an enterprise, and upon himself fell the disagreeable
work. A man of mild temper and humane instincts, he spent his day in
hunting people who would not or could not pay the money they owed,
straining his wits to circumvent the fraudulent, and swooping
relentlessly upon the victims of misfortune. The occupation revolted
him, but at present he saw no other way of supporting the genteel
appearances which--he knew not why--were indispensable to his life. He
subsisted like a bird of prey; he was ever on the look out for carrion
which the law permitted him to seize. From the point of view forced upon
him, society became a mere system of legalised rapine. 'You are in debt;
behold the bond. Behold, too, my authority for squeezing out of you the
uttermost farthing. You must beg or starve? I deplore it, but I, for my
part, have a genteel family to maintain on what I rend from your grip.'
He set his forehead against shame; he stooped to the basest chicanery;
he exposed himself to insult, to curses, to threats of violence.
Sometimes a whole day of inconceivably sordid toil resulted in the
pouching of a few pence; sometimes his reward was a substantial sum. He
knew himself despised by many of the creditors who employed him. 'Bad
debts? For how much will you sell them to me?' And as often as not he
took away with his bargain a glance which was equivalent to a kick.

The genteel family knew nothing of these expedients. Mrs. Morgan talked
dolorously to her friends of 'commercial depression,' and gave it to be
vaguely understood that her husband had suffered great losses because
he conducted his affairs in the spirit of a gentleman. Her son was in an
office;' her elder daughter was attempting the art of fiction, which
did not promise to be lucrative; Jessica, more highly educated, would
shortly matriculate at the University of London--a consoling prospect,
but involving the payment of a fee that could with difficulty be
afforded.

Every friend of t