n received at the
time--and was gone. One general sinking fund seemed to have swallowed up
everything; that, and all else; leaving a string of debts a yard long in
its place.

Reproaches now would be useless; whether self-reproach, or reproach to
his wife. The latter Lionel would never have given. And yet, when he
looked back, and thought how free from debt he might have been, nothing
but reproach, however vaguely directed, reproach of the past generally,
seemed to fill his heart. To turn out in the world, a free man, though
penniless, would have been widely different from turning out, plunged
over head and ears in difficulties.

In what quarter did he not owe money? He could not say. He had not been
very provident, and Sibylla had not been provident at all. But this much
might be said for Lionel: that he had not wasted money on useless
things, or self-indulgence. The improvements he had begun on the estate
had been the chief drain, so far as he went; and the money they took had
caused him to get backward with the general expenses. He had also been
over liberal to his mother. Money was owing on all sides; for large
things and for small; how much, Lionel did not yet know. He did not
know--he was afraid to guess--what private debts might have been
contracted by his wife. There had been times lately, when, in
contemplating the embarrassment growing so hopelessly upon him, Lionel
had felt inclined to wish that some climax would come and end it; but he
had never dreamt of such a climax as this. A hot flush dyed his cheeks
as he remembered there was nearly a twelvemonth's wages owing to most of
his servants; and he had not the means now of paying them.

"Stop on a bit if you like," said John Massingbird, in a hearty tone;
"stop a month, if you will. You are welcome. It will be only changing
your place from master to guest."

From master to guest! That same day John Massingbird assumed his own
place, unasked, at the head of the dinner-table. Lionel went to the side
with a flushed face. John Massingbird had never been remarkable for
delicacy, but Lionel could not help thinking that he might have waited
until he was gone, before assuming the full mastership. Captain Cannonby
made the third at the dinner, and he, by John Massingbird's request,
took the foot of the table. It was not the being put out of his place
that hurt Lionel so much, as the feeling of annoyance that John
Massingbird could behave so unlike a gentleman. He