“Oh, no; I could make as many debts as I pleased; and I pleased to make them, too, as they will discover one of these days. I never asked the price of anything, and therefore I enjoyed unlimited credit. If you remark, shopkeepers never dun the people who simply say, 'Send that home.'--How quickly you did your message, Richard! Have you brought an answer? Give it to me at once.” She broke open the note with eager impatience, but it fell from her fingers as she read it, and she lay back almost fainting in her chair. “Are you ill, dear,--are you faint?” asked Lady Len-drick. “No; I 'm quite well again. I was only provoked,--put out;” and she stooped and took up the letter. “I wrote to Mr. Kincaid to give me certain papers which were in his hands, and which I know Colonel Sewell would wish to have in his own keeping, and he writes me this:-- “Dear Madam,--I am sorry that it is not in my power to comply with the request of your note, inasmuch as the letters referred to were this morning handed over to Sir Brook Fossbrooke on his producing an order from Colonel Sewell to that intent.--I am, Madam, your most obedient servant, “George Kincaid.” “They were letters, then?” “Yes, Lady Lendrick, they were letters,” said she, dryly, as she arose and walked to the window, to hide an agitation she could no longer subdue. After a few minutes she turned round and said, “You will let me stay here to-night?” “Certainly, dear; of course I will.” “But the children must be sent for,--I can't suffer them to remain there. Will you send for them?” “Yes; I 'll tell Rose to take the carriage and bring them over here.” “This is very kind of you; I am most grateful. We shall not be a burden beyond to-morrow.” “What do you mean to do?” “To join my husband, as I told you awhile ago. Sir Brook Fossbrooke made that the condition of his assisting us.” “What does he call assisting you?” “Supporting us,--feeding, housing, clothing us; we shall have nothing but what he will give us.” “That is very generous, indeed.” “Yes; it is generous,--more generous than you dream of, for we did not always treat him very well; but _that_ also is a bygone, and I 'll not return to it.” “Come down and have some dinner,--it has been on the table this half-hour; it will be nigh cold by this.” “Yes; I am quite ready. I'd like to eat, too, if I could. What a great resource it is to men in their dark hours that they can drink and smoke! I think I could do both to-day if I thought they would help me to a little insensibility.” CHAPTER XXVII. PROJECTS. Trafford arrived from England on the evening after, and hastened off to Howth, where he found Sir Brook deeply engaged over the maps and plans of his new estate; for already the preliminaries had so far advanced that he could count upon it as his own.