fraud his friend, had
smoothed down the young lord's anger, and recommended him to get the
case referred to some private arbiter. All this had afterwards been
discussed between Robarts and Mr. Sowerby himself, and hence had
originated their intimacy. The matter was so referred, Mr. Sowerby
naming the referee; and Lord Lufton, when the matter was given
against him, took it easily. His anger was over by that time. "I've
been clean done among them," he said to Mark, laughing; "but it does
not signify; a man must pay for his experience. Of course, Sowerby
thinks it all right; I am bound to suppose so." And then there had
been some further delay as to the amount, and part of the money had
been paid to a third person, and a bill had been given, and Heaven
and the Jews only know how much money Lord Lufton had paid in all;
and now it was ended by his handing over to some wretched villain of
a money-dealer, on behalf of Mr. Sowerby, the enormous sum of five
thousand pounds, which had been deducted from the means of his
mother, Lady Lufton!

Mark, as he thought of all this, could not but feel a certain
animosity against Mr. Sowerby--could not but suspect that he was a
bad man. Nay, must he not have known that he was very bad? And yet he
continued walking with him through the duke's grounds, still talking
about Lord Lufton's affairs, and still listening with interest to
what Sowerby told him of his own. "No man was ever robbed as I have
been," said he. "But I shall win through yet, in spite of them all.
But those Jews, Mark"--he had become very intimate with him in these
latter days--"whatever you do, keep clear of them. Why, I could paper
a room with their signatures; and yet I never had a claim upon one of
them, though they always have claims on me!"

I have said above that this affair of Lord Lufton's was ended, but
it now appeared to Mark that it was not quite ended. "Tell Lufton,
you know," said Sowerby, "that every bit of paper with his name has
been taken up, except what that ruffian Tozer has. Tozer may have
one bill, I believe,--something that was not given up when it was
renewed. But I'll make my lawyer Gumption get that up. It may cost
ten pounds or twenty pounds, not more. You'll remember that when you
see Lufton, will you?"

"You'll see Lufton, in all probability, before I shall."

"Oh, did I not tell you? He's going to Framley Court at once; you'll
find him there when you return."

"Find him at Framley?"

"Y