w also was, in this
respect, perfectly in harmony with her sons. By dint, therefore, of
prudence, industry, and economy, they amassed among them the sum of
L.400, which they rigidly appropriated to the repayment of a part of
their father's debt. The old man had, indeed, called them together
around his death-bed, and told them that, instead of a fortune, he
left them a duty to perform; and that if it could not be accomplished
in one generation, it must be handed down from father to son, until
the descendants of the B----s had paid every farthing to the
descendants of the S----s.

While matters stood in this predicament, the creditor part of the
family removed to England, and the debtors remained at Charleston,
struggling with difficulties and embarrassments, which not only
disabled them from paying the paternal debt, but kept them perpetually
in honourable poverty. Of course, the wish to pay in such minds
survived the ability. It would have been to them an enjoyment of a
high order to hunt out their relatives in England, and place in their
hands the owing L.600. This pleasure, which they were destined never
to taste, often formed the subject of conversation around their
fireside; and the children, as they grew up, were initiated into the
mystery of the L.600.

But that generation passed away, and another succeeded to the
liability; not that there existed any liability in law, for though a
deed had been executed, it had lapsed in the course of time, so that
there was really no obligation but that which was the strongest of
all--an uneradicable sense of right. Often and often did the B----s of
Charleston meet and consult together on this famous debt, which every
one wished, but no one could afford, to pay. The sons were married,
and had children whom it was incumbent on them to support; the
daughters had married, too, but their husbands possibly did not
acquire with their wives the chivalrous sense of duty which possessed
the breast of every member, male and female, of the B. family, and
inspired them with a wish to do justice when fortune permitted.

It would be infinitely agreeable to collect and peruse the letters and
records of consultations which passed or took place between the
members of this family on the subject of the L.600. These documents
would form the materials of one of the most delightful romances in the
world--the romance of honour, which never dies in some families, but
is transmitted from generation