existence of which they had, of course, never dreamed of! But there was another discovery, which occasioned him not a little excitement, as his flushed cheek and suspended breath testified--alas! poor Aubrey's BOND for £2,000, _with interest at five per cent_!--an instrument which poor Lady Stratton, having always intended to destroy, latterly imagined that she had actually done so. It had, however, got accidentally mingled with other papers, which had found their way, in the ordinary course, to Mr. Parkinson, and who was himself ignorant of its existence, since it lay folded in a letter addressed to Lady Stratton, till it turned up while he was sorting the papers, in obedience to the request of Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap. He turned pale and red by turns as he held the accursed document in his fingers; probably, thought he, no one on earth but himself knew of its existence; _and_--_and_--he knew what the _deceased_ would have done--but his sense of duty prevailed! Of course the party entitled to sue for the principal money secured by it, together with all arrears of interest which might be due upon it, was now Mr. TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE! --Surely it is hard to imagine a more dismal and wanton freak of fortune than this--as far, at least, as concerned poor Kate Aubrey. CHAPTER V. "Fly! Fly!--For God's sake fly! Lose not one moment of the precious respite which, by incredible efforts, I have contrived to secure you--a respite of but a few hours--and wrung from heartlessness and rapacity. In justice, much injured man! to yourself--to all you hold dear upon earth--to the precious interests intrusted to your keeping, and involved in your destruction--again I say _Fly_! Quit the country, if it be but for never so short a time, till you or your friends shall have succeeded in arranging your disordered affairs. Regard this hasty and perhaps incoherent note, in what light you please--but I tell you it comes, _in sacred confidence_, from a firm and inalienable friend, whose present desperate exertions in your behalf you will one day perhaps be able to appreciate. Once more I conjure you to fly!--From other and greater dangers than you at present apprehend. _I see the rack preparing for you!_--Will you stay to be tortured?--and in the presence of the incomparable beings who--but my feelings overpower me! Indeed, Mr. Aubrey, if you disregard this intimation through weak fears as to its writer's sincerity, or a far weaker, and a wild, notion of Quixotic honor and heroism--remember, in the moment of being overwhelmed, _this note_--and then do justice to its writer.--Your faithful, unhappy, _distrusted_ friend, "O. G. "P.S.--For God's sake burn, or otherwise destroy, this letter, as soon as you shall have read it."