'We live and learn, Mr. Chevenix,' said Jerry, with unusual bitterness for him. 'True,' added his old agent, 'We live and learn, but not the _wiser_ grow, says John Pomfret.' 'And who the devil is he?' asked Jerry, testily. 'A poet and divine of the seventeenth century.' Jerry sat staring into the fire as if bewildered by the sudden revelation--this new state of things. 'And who holds all the infernal mortgages?' asked Jerry, abruptly. 'I do--they are in the iron safe on yonder shelf.' 'You; and who advanced all this money to my father, and to myself latterly?' 'I did--every shilling to the old squire and to you, Mr. Jerry; but do not be alarmed--do not be alarmed--I have no intention of foreclosing.' Jerry was more thunderstruck than ever. Here was another startling revelation. He found that more than half of his paternal estate was in the hands of the very man whose daughter he had been learning to love in secret, and whom his proud mother so heartily disliked and publicly slighted. He had hinted, as related, of mortgages on the evening of his arrival with Bevil Goring, but this state of matters he was altogether unprepared for. In short, it would seem as if but a moiety of his property remained to him, and that the heiress of it all was Bella Chevenix! Bella, the daughter of the village attorney, 'the lawyer man,' as Lady Julia called him, whose forefathers did yeoman service to his, and farmed old Langley Park. 'Take courage--you have yet time to look about you, and money, if it can be procured from some other source, may repair these evils,' said Mr. Chevenix, kindly; but he knew not what was then in Jerry's mind. That in reality a love for Bella had been fast becoming the ruling thought of his life; that on learning she had returned to Wilmothurst he had arranged to return home also, and had made up his mind, despite his mother's pride and opposition, to propose for the girl; but dared he do so now? Their positions were completely reversed, and were he to do so she would never believe in his love or view him as other than a pretender, who offered it in barter for the mortgages her father held on his estate. The latter was eyeing Jerry, and, having no idea of what his secret thoughts were, failed to see why, if even a half of his estate remained, he should seem so suddenly overcome, for he had grown very pale, and he respired like one in pain.