“On my—”
“That will do. I believe it; but neither you nor I can marry for years to come. You shall go with me, and we will come back well enough off to make those two our wives.”
“But Poynter’s debt? He’ll have me arrested before I can leave the country.”
“His debt shall be paid.”
“Paid?”
“Not in full, but as much as is honestly due to him. I shall set a sensible solicitor to work to make a compromise.”
“But the money? No, no; he will not give up. This is putting on the screw so as to move my sister.”
“Whom he will not move,” said Mark, smiling with content. “I suppose you are not likely to take up your father’s invention?”
“Good gracious, no! Millington, our big swell, told me, when I mentioned it, that it was a craze, and that it was contrary to nature. You can’t arrest ordinary decay.”
“No, of course not; life must go on till it reaches its highest pitch, and then decline.”