d be--"

"Ruin, I know. Well, Levy, it is, on the whole, to your advantage that
I should not lose. There may be more to get from me yet. And, judging by
the letters I received this morning, my position is rendered so safe by
the absolute necessity of my party to keep me up, that the news of my
pecuniary difficulties will not affect me so much as I once feared.
Never was my career so free from obstacle, so clear towards the highest
summit of ambition; never, in my day of ostentatious magnificence, as
it is now, when I am prepared to shrink into a lodging, with a single
servant."

"I am glad to hear it; and I am the more anxious to secure your
election, upon which this career must depend, because--nay, I hardly
like to tell you--"

"Speak on."

"I have been obliged, by a sudden rush on all my resources, to consign
some of your bills and promissory notes to another, who, if your person
should not be protected from arrest by parliamentary privilege, might be
harsh and--"

"Traitor!" interrupted Egerton, fiercely, all the composed contempt with
which he usually treated the usurer giving way, "say no more. How could
I ever expect otherwise! You have foreseen my defeat, and have planned
my destruction. Presume no reply! Sir, begone from my presence!"

"You will find that you have worse friends than myself," said the baron,
moving to the door; "and if you are defeated, if your prospects for
life are destroyed, I am the last man you will think of blaming. But
I forgive your anger, and trust that to-morrow you will receive those
explanations of my conduct which you are now in no temper to bear. I go
to take care of the election."

Left alone, Audley's sudden passion seemed to forsake him.

He gathered together, in that prompt and logical precision which the
habit of transacting public business bestows, all his thoughts, and
sounded all his fears; and most vivid of every thought, and most
intolerable of every fear, was the belief that the baron had betrayed
him to L'Estrange.

"I cannot bear this suspense," he cried aloud and abruptly. "I will see
Harley myself. Open as he is, the very sound of his voice will tell me
at once if I am a bankrupt even of human friendship. If that friendship
be secure, if Harley yet clasp my hand with the same cordial warmth, all
other loss shall not wring from my fortitude one complaint."

He rang the bell; his valet, who was waiting in the anteroom, appeared.

"Go and see if Lord L'Est