"The world will soon know it, Mildred, above a whisper."
"It is even so then! What has led to it?"
"Oh, Mildred! can you ask what has led to it, when you look at the misery and distress everywhere around us? Search the Gazette for the past years, and see how many names you will find in it, who once stood as high as ours! The only wonder is, that we have not yet gone with the stream. It is a hard case, Mildred, when we have toiled all our lives, that the labour should come to nothing at last," he continued; "that our closing years, which ought to be given to thoughts of another world, must be distracted with the anxious cares of this."
"Is your difficulty serious, or only temporary?" resumed Miss Arkell.
"It ought to be only temporary," he replied; "but the worst is, I cannot, at the present moment, command my resources. We have kept on manufacturing, hoping for better times; and, to tell you the truth, Mildred, I could not reconcile it to my conscience to turn off my old workmen to beggary. There was Travice, too. I have a heavy stock of goods on hand; to the amount of some thousands; and this locks up my diminished capital. I am still worth what would cover my business liabilities twice over—and I have no others—but I cannot avail myself of it for present emergencies. I have turned every stone, Mildred, to keep my head above water: and I believe I can struggle no longer."
"What amount of money would effectually relieve you?" asked Miss Arkell.
"About three thousand pounds," he replied, answering the question without any apparent interest.
"Then to-morrow morning vouchers for that sum shall be placed in the Westerbury bank at your disposal. And for double that sum, if you require it."
Mr. Arkell looked up in astonishment; and finally addressed to her the very words which he had once before done, in early life, upon a far different subject.
"You are dreaming, Mildred!"