'Yes, in obedience to your directions, I took up all the acceptances I could trace, and, as he has been more than once in the Black List, I wonder that he has been able to draw bills without some one to back them. There is some of his paper,' added Slagg, pointing to some very crumpled-looking slips.
'Renewed more than once apparently.'
'Oh! yes—again and again, in some instances.'
'Poor old devil!' said my Lord Cadbury, with reference to his prospective father-in-law; 'what is the "demmed total," as Mr. Mantilini would say?'
'About a couple of thousand.'
Cadbury smiled—the sum was a trifle to him; but its demand meant utter ruin to the impecunious Sir Ranald, who could no more meet his acceptances than fly.
'My pretty Alison will find that at Chilcote she has been living in a kind of fool's paradise,' thought he, as he tugged his long white moustache with very great complacency.
'You will put all the pressure you can upon Sir Ranald when these bills fall due—no more renewals at any risk; at the same time it must all appear as your affair, not mine—my name must not appear in the matter.'
'Of course not, my lord; if it did——'
'Don't even think of it, for in that case it would prove my ruin in a quarter where I wish to be well thought of.'