Part 80 (1/2)

Late on the following afternoon who should drive up to the parsonage door but Mr. Forrest, the bank manager from Barchester--Mr. Forrest, to whom Sowerby had always pointed as the _Deus ex machina_ who, if duly invoked, could relieve them all from their present troubles, and dismiss the whole Tozer family--not howling into the wilderness, as one would have wished to do with that brood of Tozers, but so gorged with prey that from them no further annoyance need be dreaded? All this Mr. Forrest could do; nay, more, most willingly would do! Only let Mark Robarts put himself into the banker's hand, and blandly sign what doc.u.ments the banker might desire.

”This is a very unpleasant affair,” said Mr. Forrest as soon as they were closeted together in Mark's book-room. In answer to which observation the parson acknowledged that it was a very unpleasant affair.

”Mr. Sowerby has managed to put you into the hands of about the worst set of rogues now existing, in their line of business, in London.”

”So I supposed; Curling told me the same.” Curling was the Barchester attorney whose aid he had lately invoked.

”Curling has threatened them that he will expose their whole trade; but one of them who was down here, a man named Tozer, replied, that you had much more to lose by exposure than he had. He went further and declared that he would defy any jury in England to refuse him his money. He swore that he discounted both bills in the regular way of business; and, though this is of course false, I fear that it will be impossible to prove it so. He well knows that you are a clergyman, and that, therefore, he has a stronger hold on you than on other men.”

”The disgrace shall fall on Sowerby,” said Robarts, hardly actuated at the moment by any strong feeling of Christian forgiveness.

”I fear, Mr. Robarts, that he is somewhat in the condition of the Tozers. He will not feel it as you will do.”

”I must bear it, Mr. Forrest, as best I may.”

”Will you allow me, Mr. Robarts, to give you my advice? Perhaps I ought to apologize for intruding it upon you; but as the bills have been presented and dishonoured across my counter, I have, of necessity, become acquainted with the circ.u.mstances.”

”I am sure I am very much obliged to you,” said Mark.

”You must pay this money, or, at any rate, the most considerable portion of it;--the whole of it, indeed, with such deduction as a lawyer may be able to induce these hawks to make on the sight of the ready money. Perhaps 750 or 800 may see you clear of the whole affair.”

”But I have not a quarter of that sum lying by me.”

”No, I suppose not; but what I would recommend is this: that you should borrow the money from the bank, on your own responsibility,--with the joint security of some friend who may be willing to a.s.sist you with his name. Lord Lufton probably would do it.”

”No, Mr. Forrest--”

”Listen to me first, before you make up your mind. If you took this step, of course you would do so with the fixed intention of paying the money yourself,--without any further reliance on Sowerby or on any one else.”

”I shall not rely on Mr. Sowerby again; you may be sure of that.”

”What I mean is that you must teach yourself to recognize the debt as your own. If you can do that, with your income you can surely pay it, with interest, in two years. If Lord Lufton will a.s.sist you with his name I will so arrange the bills that the payments shall be made to fall equally over that period. In that way the world will know nothing about it, and in two years' time you will once more be a free man. Many men, Mr. Robarts, have bought their experience much dearer than that, I can a.s.sure you.”

”Mr. Forrest, it is quite out of the question.”

”You mean that Lord Lufton will not give you his name.”

”I certainly shall not ask him; but that is not all. In the first place my income will not be what you think it, for I shall probably give up the prebend at Barchester.”

”Give up the prebend! give up six hundred a year!”

”And, beyond this, I think I may say that nothing shall tempt me to put my name to another bill. I have learned a lesson which I hope I may never forget.”

”Then what do you intend to do?”

”Nothing!”

”Then those men will sell every stick of furniture about the place.

They know that your property here is enough to secure all that they claim.”