"I cannot tell," replied Lionel. "It is a question that cannot arise now."
"No. Sibylla stops it. What are you going to do with yourself?"
"That I cannot tell. I should like an appointment abroad, if I could get one. I did think of going to London, and looking about me a bit; but I am not sure that I shall do so just yet."
"I say, Lionel," resumed John Massingbird, sinking his voice, but speaking in a joking sort of way, "how do you mean to pay your debts? I hear you have a few."
"I have a good many, one way or another."
"Wipe them off," said John.
"I wish I could wipe them off."
"There's nothing more easy," returned John in his free manner. "Get the whitewash brush to work. The insolvent court has its friendly doors ever open."
The colour came into the face of Lionel. A Verner there! He quietly shook his head. "I dare say I shall find a way of paying some time, if the people will only wait."
"Sibylla helped you to a good part of the score, didn't she? People are saying so. Just like her!"