The least I can do, in the meantime, is to set an
example of friendly sympathy and forbearance on my side. No more now,
Richard. Hush! the music!"
It was impossible to make him explain himself further that night.
Turlington was left to interpret Sir Joseph's mysterious communication
with such doubtful aid to success as his own unassisted ingenuity might
afford.
The meeting of the next day at Muswell Hill had for its object--as
Turlington had already been informed--the drawing of Natalie's
marriage-settlement. Was the question of money at the bottom of Sir
Joseph's contemplated appeal to his indulgence? He thought of his
commercial position. The depression in the Levant trade still continued.
Never had his business at any previous time required such constant
attention, and repaid that attention with so little profit. The Bills
of Lading had been already used by the firm, in the ordinary course of
trade, to obtain possession of the goods. The duplicates in the hands
of Bulpit Brothers were literally waste paper. Repayment of the loan
of forty thousand pounds (with interest) was due in less than a
month's time.
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