“The land could be sold to-morrow for ten thousand pounds, or more than that--I speak hastily,” said Cuthbert. “It is burdened to the amount of five thousand, but after paying that, there remains abundance to satisfy your claim, and I can answer for the strictest honour in your debtor’s dealing. Poor Harry! This Martha--this sister of his--clings to his every project. You could not see it without being deeply moved, uncle. She has a strong, ambitious, passionate mind, and his was a weak and yielding one; yet she clutches at every one of the rapidly changing projects which he took up and then threw down as toys of a day, and confers upon them a sort of everlastingness through the might of will and resolution with which she adopts them. Uncle, you must help Martha.” Mr. Buchanan sat by him in silence, and listened, hastily fastening and unfastening the one particular button which admitted his hand to his warm breast-pocket, competent and comfortable. The good man was naturally benevolent to a high degree--a propensity which Cuthbert, who was his uncle’s favourite and chosen counsellor, encouraged by all means in his power; but the rules of business was at Mr. Buchanan’s finger ends, and their restraint came up upon him like a natural impulse, so that he actually did not know, good simple man, that his natural will was always towards the charity, and that this restraint was something artificial which interposed between him and his natural will. “Perfectly unbusiness-like, Cuthbert,” said the merchant. “I wonder greatly why you should speak of such a thing to _me_. A man accustomed to regular business transactions has no tolerance for such affairs as this--they are out of his way. Your landed gentry or rich people, who don’t know anything about where their money comes from, or how it is made--they are the people to carry such a story to.” Very true in the abstract, good Mr. Buchanan--nevertheless, your nephew Cuthbert knows, as well as if you had told him, that your purse begins to burn your breast-pocket, and leaps and struggles there, desiring to get the worst over, and be peacefully at rest again. Cuthbert knows it; and Cuthbert takes advantage of his knowledge.