"Why, Sir," replied the man, who had often seen his interrogator in Tarningham, "Mr. Wharton's clerk told me that there was an execution going to be put in, so I came up to see if I could get my bill. But the lawyer was beforehand with us; and the matter is not so much, only forty pound or so, and I did not think it worth while, when I found how matters are going, to trouble the hearty old gentleman, who has spent a deal o' money with us all in his day." "You seem a very respectable man," said Beauchamp, calmly, but still somewhat moved, "and you shall not lose by your conduct. You, Sir," and he turned to another, "I think you are the stationer at Tarningham--is yours the same errand, and on the same information?" "Yes, Sir," answered the person he addressed, "one of Mr. Wharton's young men came down and told me; but I think, with my neighbour Groves, that we should behave handsome." "I see the whole matter," said Beauchamp, speaking rather to himself than those around. "You can wait a little, gentlemen? I think Sir John can pay you all without inconvenience, though he is a careless man, and his affairs may not be quite in order." "They say Mr. Wharton has arrested him, Sir," said a little man, with a thin, small voice. "I will go in and see," replied Beauchamp, with a smile. "If any of you could contrive to go or send down to Tarningham, and say to Mr. Bacon, the attorney, that Lord Lenham would be glad to see him here immediately, you would oblige me. Tell him to lose not a moment." "I'll go, in a jiffey," cried the stout man, jumping into a tax-cart. "Who did you say, my lord?" "Lord Lenham," answered Beauchamp; "he will know who you mean;" and turning round, he walked into the house. The servants grouped themselves differently at his appearance, and bowed low, the butler venturing to say, "I am glad you have come, Sir." "Where is your master?" asked Beauchamp. "In the library, Sir," replied the man, "with a number of them. It is a sad time, Sir, 'specially for my poor young lady."