"Well, but your governor is a close old boy. He has metal enough for a frigate besides his First-rate." "Yes; but he has told me a hundred times that tit for tat is the only game he plays at--whatever fortune I bring he will pay me over the same; if I marry for love, I must live on it. I could give you a score or two more of his wise sayings." "Oh! thank ye--I've a good stock of my own; but why, in the name of wonder, is he so distrustful? Can't he give you credit for being able to choose, without bribing you, as it were, to look out for a fortune?" "My father won't give credit to any one, especially to me; besides, he has some little cause to be suspicious, for I've cleaned him out of a trifle once or twice, in a way that makes him slow to bite now. I have been on the point of marriage twice--once to old Crocky, and once to Stulz." "How?" "Why, you see, last year I was dipt a little to the fishmonger, and wrote a matrimonial letter home hinting at trousseaus and other expenses, but mentioning no names. Nothing could please the old gentleman so much, and it was on that occasion he sent me up the paper, properly signed and attested, binding himself to give me guinea for guinea whatever fortune I might get with my wife. A thousand he sent me to do the needful in the way of jewels and other presents, set me square with all the world." "And your progenitor was indignant at the disappointment?" "Oh! horribly; and unless it had been for a four-year bill of Stulz, I shouldn't have troubled him so soon. But, as I was aware that Walter knew of the obligation about my future fortune, I gave him to understand that I was devoted to Miss Coutts, and that I had no reason to despair. The very thought of such a thing was death both to the old Jack Daw and the young. The squire and his eldest hope would have been both in the poor-house if I had succeeded in carrying off the heiress, and had kept them to their bond. So, after a week or two, I let them off for their alarm, and a moderate tip. But all these things, my dear Teysham, are over now. I am resolved to marry Jane Somers, and cut both Stulz and Crocky." "If you can get her; but this old monster, with the uncommon name, has her in his power. We must concert measures calmly, and we need not despair. Will she herself help us?" "To be sure she will. Her new home must be misery to her. She is the daughter of a sister of this old Smith, who, by some chance or other, married a gentleman. She had a large fortune, which now belongs to this only child. Colonel Somers has long been dead; the widow died a few years ago. Jane was then educated in the house of another guardian, a cousin of Colonel Somers, who lived near Bath; and, on his lately being sent to India on a high command, she was claimed by this Manchester hobgoblin, and torn from all her old friends." "Yourself among the rest?" "Just so--and now you know the whole story."