There was a situation open for him, he said, of five hundred a year in London, and he would never be servant where he had been master; so the proprietor took “no” for an answer, and passing on to Alick secured his services for one-half the sum and the use of Berrie Down House and farm produce, till such time as the proprietor should require the residence from him. Two of the girls resided with the young steward, but Agnes remained with Heather; Cuthbert had left the Messrs. Elser, and was now receiving a good salary from Mr. Raidsford. Altogether the family prospects were brighter than of old, excepting as regarded Arthur, who had steadily fallen from height to height, till at length he found himself cashier and bookkeeper, and yardkeeper and general manager to Mr. Lukin, who had great works in the North, and was reported to be enormously rich. If he were so, Arthur did not derive much benefit from his wealth, for he had but two hundred a year; while Simons, the actual though sub-manager, thought himself fortunate to receive two pounds a week. Certainly Arthur’s duties were light—to take money and pay it into the bank—to write a report of how business progressed to his employer—to keep the books, and see to things generally. There was no great hardship or difficulty involved in these and such like matters; and yet Arthur was now as of old at Berrie Down, a wretched man. He had a trouble dogging his footsteps, and that trouble was debt. After paying off the most of his liabilities, and leaving himself without a sixpence in the world, he was still five hundred pounds deficient, and five hundred pounds to a man who is trying to live respectably on two hundred a year is, with a pressing creditor, almost equivalent to utter bankruptcy. His friends would have helped him had they known of his grievous strait; but Arthur’s was not a temper to take help or pecuniary assistance from any one on earth. With all his heart, Mr. Raidsford desired to show his gratitude to the man who had saved him from ruin; but when he came to press offers of money, offers of situations, high salaries, and so forth, on Arthur’s acceptance, the poor gentleman drew himself up, and made the contractor feel he had made a mistake—that Arthur Dudley of Silk Street very much resembled Arthur Dudley of Berrie Down, only that he was a degree prouder than of old. Mr. Croft, also, more earnestly desired to do something for his friend; but he was repelled haughtily by Arthur, and also, though more gently, by Heather. As for Mr. Black, in answer to the solicitor who, on Arthur’s behalf, waited on him concerning those bills for which Squire Dudley was legally liable, he said plainly, he never would find sixpence towards helping Dudley out of the mess into which he had got himself. “If he had stuck to me, I should have stuck to him,” the promoter answered; “but he would go fishing on his own hook, and if he have come to grief, he has nobody to blame but himself.”