ng--charges of fraudulent borrowing would be brought against him
which he might find it difficult to combat in a court of law; and he was
living from hour to hour in fear of arrest.

The Priory itself, and everything it contained of any value, to the last
family portrait that hung upon the walls, had been either mortgaged or
sold. If a few heirlooms, in the way of carved furniture--a cabinet or
what not--had been allowed still to remain, it was to, as long as
possible, keep the knowledge of the worst from his mother and sister.

He had, in the first few moments of their meeting, hurriedly speculated
as to whether anything could be made out of the other's chance visit;
but his hopes, if they amounted to that, had very quickly died as he
remembered the past. There had been nothing large-handed or generous,
according to his interpretation of the words, in Meredith. He had shown
no inclination to part with his money without a _quid pro quo_, and
lived as though he had not a pound to spare, instead of an income of
some ten or twelve thousand a year. He had lost his father in his early
boyhood, and the property, carefully nursed for him during a long
minority, had largely increased.

That, like many who spend little upon themselves, Meredith could be
even lavishly generous to others, and that there was none to whom one in
need could so safely turn for help, Verschoyle did not suspect. He would
have been not a little surprised could he have known that many a man had
to thank Meredith for help given just at the right moment, and given so
quietly that none but the two most concerned were in the secret.
Meredith, in fact, cared nothing for the luxuries of life. Capable of
doing his share in the world's work, steadily exercising his best
faculties, and mentally and physically invigorated by the process, he
was almost unable to comprehend a man such as Verschoyle had come to be.

"No; it would be of no use," summed up Verschoyle, eyeing him askance.
"If I began to tell him about being in need of a few hundreds, he would
want to know the whole story; and it would be no good trying to throw
dust in his eyes. I wonder what he would do if I told him point-blank
that I am liable to be hauled off to gaol at any moment for lack of five
hundred pounds? Button up his pockets and scurry off without waiting to
test the Priory hospitality, perhaps; or, worse still, begin to preach."

Seeing that the other was disinclined to be communicative