mine."

"No," cried Miss Sarah, "nor any brother of mine. I would be insufferably
mean."

"Who will pay my debts?" asked the son, looking up at the ceiling.

"Why, I would, my child, if--if--I had not spent my own allowance."

"I would," echoed the sister; "but if we go to Bath, you know, I shall
want all my money."

"Who will pay my debts?" repeated the son.

"Apology, indeed! Who is he, that you, a son of Alderman--of--Mr. Jarvis,
of the deanery, B----, North 'amptonshire, should beg his pardon--a
vagrant that nobody knows!"

"Who will pay my debts?" again inquired the captain drumming with his
foot."

"Harry," exclaimed the mother, "do you love money better than honor--a
soldier's honor?"

"No, mother; but I like good eating and drinking. Think mother; it's a
cool five hundred, and that's a famous deal of money."

"Harry," cried the mother, in a rage, "you are not fit for a soldier. I
wish I were in your place."

"I wish, with all my heart, you had been for an hour this morning,"
thought the son. After arguing for some time longer, they compromised, by
agreeing to leave it to the decision of Colonel Egerton, who, the mother
did not doubt, would applaud her maintaining; the Jarvis dignity, a family
in which he took quite as much interest as he felt for his own--so he had
told her fifty times. The captain, however, determined within himself to
touch the five hundred, let the colonel decide as he might; but the
colonel's decision obviated all difficulties. The question was put to him
by Mrs. Jarvis, on his return from the airing, with no doubt the decision
would be favorable to her opinion. The colonel and herself, she said,
never disagreed; and the lady was right--for wherever his interest made it
desirable to convert Mrs. Jarvis to his side of the question, Egerton had
a manner of doing it that never failed to succeed.

"Why, madam," said he, with one of his most agreeable smiles, "apologies
are different things, at different times. You are certainly right in your
sentiments, as relates to a proper spirit in a soldier; but no one can
doubt the spirit of the captain, after the stand he took in this affair;
if Mr. Denbigh would not meet him (a very extraordinary measure, in deed,
I confess), what can your son do more? He cannot _make_ a man fight
against his will, you know."

"True, true," cried the matron, impatiently, "I do not want him to fight;
heaven forbid! but why should he, the challenger, beg p