f my tether, although,
as yet, I am glad to say, nobody has actually pressed me, and I have
come to you, as a friend and a relative, for advice. What is to be done?
I have sold you all the valuable land, and I am glad to think that you
have made a very good thing of it. Some years ago, also, you took over
the two heaviest mortgages on the Abbey estate, and I am sorry to say
that the interest is considerably in arrear. There remain the floating
debts and other charges, amounting in all to about 7,000 pounds, which
I have no means of meeting, and meanwhile, of course, the place must be
kept up. Under these circumstances, John, I ask you as a business man,
what is to be done?"

"And, as a business man, I say I'm hanged if I know," said Porson, with
unwonted energy. "All debts, no assets--the position is impossible.
Unless, indeed, something happens."

"Quite so. That's it. My only comfort is--that something might happen,"
and he paused.

Porson fidgeted about on the edge of the leather sofa and turned red. In
his heart he was wondering whether he dared offer to pay off the debts.
This he was quite able to do; more, he was willing to do, since to him,
good simple man, the welfare of the ancient house of Monk, of which his
only sister had married the head, was a far more important thing than
parting with a certain number of thousands of pounds. For birth and
station, in his plebeian humility, John Porson had a reverence which
was almost superstitious. Moreover, he had loved his dead sister
dearly, and, in his way, he loved her son also. Also he revered his
brother-in-law, the polished and splendid-looking Colonel, although it
was true that sometimes he writhed beneath his military and aristocratic
heel. Particularly, indeed, did he resent, in his secret heart, those
continual sarcasms about his taste in architecture.

Now, although the monetary transactions between them had been many, as
luck would have it--entirely without his own design--they chanced in the
main to have turned to his, Porson's, advantage. Thus, owing chiefly
to his intelligent development of its possibilities, the land which he
bought from the Monk estate had increased enormously in value; so much
so, indeed, that, even if he lost all the other sums advanced upon
mortgage, he would still be considerably to the good. Therefore, as it
happened, the Colonel was really under no obligations to him. In these
circumstances, Mr. Porson did not quite know how a