“You shall not stay in this cold shop, my dear; you ought not to have come out.”
“Nonsense, father! There is nothing the matter. Have you a list of your creditors?”
“Yes; there it is.”
She glanced at it, and to her amazement saw Mr. Cardew’s name down for £100.
“Mr. Cardew, father?”
“Yes; he came in one day, and said that he had some money lying idle, and did not know what to do with it. I was welcome to it if I wanted it for the business.”
A statement was duly prepared by Mr. Askew, Mr. Furze’s solicitor; the usual notice was sent round, and the meeting took place in a room at the Bell. A composition of seven-and-sixpence in the pound was offered, to be paid within a twelvemonth, with a further half-crown in two years’ time, the debtor undertaking to give up his house in the Terrace.
“Considering,” said the lawyer, “that the debts owing to the estate are nearly all good, although just now it is difficult to realise, I think, gentlemen, you are safe, and I may add that this seems to me a very fair proposal. My client, I may say, would personally have preferred a different course, and would like to bind himself to pay in full at some future time, but I cannot advise any such promise, for I do not think he would be able to keep it.”
“I shall want some security for the half-crown,” said Mr. Crook, representative of the firm of Jenkins, Crook, and Hardman, iron merchants in Staffordshire.
“Can’t say as I’m satisfied,” said Mr. Nagle, brass founder. “The debtor takes an expensive house without any warranty, and he cannot expect much consideration. I must have ten shillings now. Times are bad for us as well as for him.”