Framley Parsonage, Anthony Trollope [popular e readers txt] 📗

“Yes, it has: I’ll not deny my name, and if there be absolute need I will pay it; but if I do so, my lawyer shall sift it, and it shall go before a jury.”

“But I thought all those bills were paid?”

“I left it to Sowerby to get up the old bills when they were renewed, and now one of them that has in truth been already honoured is brought against me.”

Mark could not but think of the two documents which he himself had signed, and both of which were now undoubtedly in the hands of Tozer, or of some other gentleman of the same profession;⁠—which both might be brought against him, the second as soon as he should have satisfied the first. And then he remembered that Sowerby had said something to him about an outstanding bill, for the filling up of which some trifle must be paid, and of this he reminded Lord Lufton.

“And do you call eight hundred pounds a trifle? If so, I do not.”

“They will probably make no such demand as that.”

“But I tell you they do make such a demand, and have made it. The man whom I saw, and who told me that he was Tozer’s friend, but who was probably Tozer himself, positively swore to me that he would be obliged to take legal proceedings if the money were not forthcoming within a week or ten days. When I explained to him that it was an old bill that had been renewed, he declared that his friend had given full value for it.”

“Sowerby said that you would probably have to pay ten pounds to redeem it. I should offer the man some such sum as that.”

“My intention is to offer the man nothing, but to leave the affair in the hands of my lawyer with instructions to him to spare none;⁠—neither myself nor anyone else. I am not going to allow such a man as Sowerby to squeeze me like an orange.”

“But, Lufton, you seem as though you were angry with me.”

“No, I am not. But I think it is as well to caution you about this man; my transactions with him lately have chiefly been through you, and therefore⁠—”

“But they have only been so through his and your wish: because I have been anxious to oblige you both. I hope you don’t mean to say that I am concerned in these bills.”

“I know that you are concerned in bills with him.”

“Why, Lufton, am I to understand, then, that you are accusing me of having any interest in these transactions which you have called swindling?”

“As far as I am concerned there has been swindling, and there is swindling going on now.”

“But you do not answer my question. Do you bring any accusation against me? If so, I agree with you that you had better go to your lawyer.”

“I think that is what I shall do.”

“Very well. But upon the whole, I never heard of a more unreasonable man, or of one whose thoughts are more unjust than yours. Solely with the view of assisting you, and solely at your request, I spoke to Sowerby about these money transactions of yours. Then at his request, which originated out of your request, he using me as his ambassador to you, as you had used me as yours to him, I wrote and spoke to you. And now this is the upshot.”

“I bring no accusation against you, Robarts; but I know you have dealings with this man. You have told me so yourself.”

“Yes, at his request to accommodate him, I have put my name to a bill.”

“Only to one?”

“Only to one; and then to that same renewed, or not exactly to that same, but to one which stands for it. The first was for four hundred pounds; the last for five hundred.”

“All which you will have to make good, and the world will of course tell you that you have paid that price for this stall at Barchester.”

This was terrible to be borne. He had heard much lately which had frightened and scared him, but nothing so terrible as this; nothing which so stunned him, or conveyed to his mind so frightful a reality of misery and ruin. He made no immediate answer, but standing on the hearthrug with his back to the fire, looked up the whole length of the room. Hitherto his eyes had been fixed upon Lord Lufton’s face, but now it seemed to him as though he had but little more to do with Lord Lufton. Lord Lufton and Lord Lufton’s mother were neither now to be counted among those who wished him well. Upon whom indeed could he now count, except that wife of his bosom upon whom he was bringing all this wretchedness?

In that moment of agony ideas ran quickly through his brain. He would immediately abandon this preferment at Barchester, of which it might be said with so much colour that he had bought it. He would go to Harold Smith, and say positively that he declined it. Then he would return home and tell his wife all that had occurred;⁠—tell the whole also to Lady Lufton, if that might still be of any service. He would make arrangement for the payment of both those bills as they might be presented, asking no questions as to the justice of the claim, making no complaint to anyone, not even to Sowerby. He would put half his income, if half were necessary, into the hands of Forrest the banker, till all was paid. He would sell every horse he had. He would part with his footman and groom, and at any rate strive like a man to get again a firm footing on good ground. Then, at that moment, he loathed with his whole soul the position in which he found himself placed, and his own folly which had placed him there. How could he reconcile it to his conscience that he was there