immense patronage among the Nonconformist population
Rickman's in the City held a high and honourable position in the
trade. The bulk of the profits had to go to the bookseller's widow as
chief owner of the capital; still, the slender partnership settled on
his son, if preserved intact and carefully manipulated, would yield in
time a very comfortable addition to Keith's income. If Isaac had
lived, his affairs (as far as he was concerned) would have been easily
settled. But for his son and heir they proved most seriously
complicated.

For Keith was heir, not only to his father's estate, but to that very
considerable debt of honour which Isaac had left unpaid. It seemed as
if the Harden library, the symbol of a superb intellectual vanity, was
doomed to be in eternal necessity of redemption. Until yesterday it
had not occurred to Keith that it could be his destiny to redeem it.
Yesterday he had refused to let his mind dally with that possibility;
to-day it had become the most fitting subject of his contemplation.

The thing was more easily conceived than done. His literary income
amounted, all told, to about three hundred and fifty a year, but its
sources were not absolutely secure. _Metropolis_ or _The Planet_ might
conceivably at any moment cease to be. And there was his marriage. It
was put off; but only for a matter of weeks. He had only a hundred and
fifty pounds in ready money; the rest had been swallowed up by the
little house at Ealing. It was impossible to redeem the Harden library
unless he parted with his patrimony; which was, after all, his only
safe and imperishable source of income. Still, he had not the smallest
hesitation on this head. Neither he nor Flossie had taken it into
their calculations when they agreed to marry, and he was not going to
consider it now.

The first step proved simple. Mrs. Rickman had no objection to buying
him out. On the contrary, she was thankful to get rid of a most
reckless and uncomfortable partner. But in the present state of the
trade it was impossible to estimate his share at more than four
thousand. That covered the principal; but Isaac had paid no interest
for more than two years; and that interest Keith would have to pay.
Though the four thousand was secure, and Pilkington had given him
three years to raise the seven hundred and fifty in, it was not so
easily done on an income of three hundred and fifty. Not easy in three
years; and impossible in any number of years if