"They will find themselves, then, utterly mistaken," said Mr. Aubrey, sternly. "If they and their client are really capable of such shocking brutality--such wanton oppression--let them do their worst: I am resigned. Providence will discover a shelter for my poor wife and children, and my dear, devoted, high-spirited sister; and as for myself, rather than satiate the rapacity of such wretches, by plundering good-natured and generous friends, I will spend the remainder of my days in prison!" Mr. Aubrey was evidently not a little excited while he said this; but there was that in his tone of voice, and in his eye, which told Mr. Runnington that he meant what he said; and that, as soon as it should have come to the point of oppression and injustice, no man could resist more powerfully, or endure with a more dignified and inflexible resolution. But Mr. Runnington expressed strong hopes that it would not come to such an issue. He consoled Mr. Aubrey with assurances that, as for their own demand, it might stand over for years; and that so, he was sure, would it be with the far lesser demand of Mr. Parkinson; and that if, by a great effort, sufficient could be raised to discharge promptly the bill of Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, some much more favorable arrangement respecting the amount and mode of payment of the mesne profits might be effected--leaving Mr. Aubrey, in the mean time, leisure to apply himself vigorously to his studies for the bar, for which Mr. Runnington assured him that he considered him peculiarly qualified; and pledged himself to back him with all the influence he had, or could command. "Gracious Heaven, Mr. Runnington!" said Aubrey, with a little excitement, "is it not very nearly intolerable that I should pass the prime of my days in thraldom to such people as these, and be encircled by the chains of such a man as this Titmouse is represented as being? I will not call myself his foe, nor his victim; but I am the one through whose sudden destitution he has obtained a splendid fortune. I did not _knowingly_ deprive him of it--he must be bereft of all the ordinary feelings of humanity, to place me, whom he has already stripped of all, upon the rack--the rack of extortion! Oh! put me in his place, and him in mine--do you think I would not have been satisfied with what I had gained? Would _I_ have alarmed and tortured him by calling for an account of what he had spent with a firm, a reasonable persuasion that it was his own--profoundly unconscious of its being another's? Oh, no! I would not only have forgiven him all, but endeavored to secure him from future want!" He sighed. "Oh, that I were at this moment a free man! _pauper--sed in meo ære_; that I had but five hundred pounds to keep me and mine for a year or two--with a mind at ease, and fit for study! but here we are at the Temple. When shall we meet again--or shall I hear from you?"