Mur His estates are mortgaged, his creditors clamorous. The Bailiffs will be in Trenchard Manor to-day, disguised as your own servants. This much Mr. Coyle has conceded to your father's respect for appearances. Flo Then beggary stares him in the face. Poor father, what a sad blow for him. Is that all, sir? Mur No; the worst remains. Flo Go on, sir. Mur Coyle knows your father's weakness and as a means of escape from ruin to the verge of which he has brought him, he has this day proposed for your hand. Flo Mine! Mur On consideration of settling on you the Ravensdale Estate. Flo And my father, how did he listen to such insolence? Mur You know as well as I do how he would hear such a proposal, at first a torrent of rage, then the strong ebb of selfishness set in, and he consented to listen to the terms, to view them as something to be considered, to consider them. Flo Good Heavens, can this be true? No, I will not believe it of my father, and from such lips. Mur You have full right to think this and to say it, but mark your father and Coyle to-day. You will then see if I speak truth or not. Flo Forgive my distrust, Mr. Murcott. Mur I am past taking offence or feeling scorn, I have carried more than can be heaped upon me, but I did not come only to give you warning of your danger. Flo Can you avert it? Asa (Coming down between them). Wal, stranger that's just the question I was going to ask. Flo You here, sir, and listening. Asa Wal, it wasn't purpose, I went in there to take a snooze, I heard you talking and I thought it wouldn't be polite of me not to listen to what you had to say. I'm a rough sort of a customer, and don't know much about the ways of great folks. But I've got a cool head, a stout arm, and a willing heart, and I think I can help you, just as one cousin ought to help another. Flo Well, I do think you are honest. Mur Shall I go on? Flo Yes, we will trust him, go on. Mur I found the Ravensdale mortgage while rumaging in an old deed box of Coyle's father's, there was a folded paper inside the deed. I took both to Coyle unopened, like a besotted fool that I was. My belief is strong that the paper was the release of the mortgage that the money had been paid off, and the release executed without the seals having been cut from the original mortgage. I have known such things happen. Asa Have ye, now? Well, if a Yankee lawyer had done such a thing he would have Judge Lynch after him in no time. Mur You can but find that release, we may unmask this diabolical fiend and save you. Flo But, surely, a villain of Coyle's stability would have destroyed the paper, the very key-stone of his fraud. Mur I fear so.