"What I came to ask is, whether you would have the kindness to try what you could do" (what an infamous shame to have to beg like this!) "do to save—do to ensure—whether you would have the kindness" It seemed out of all human power to gulp it down. The draught grew more and more abhorrent. To proclaim one's iniquity, to apologize for one's wrongdoing; thus much could be done; but to beg a favour of the offended party—that was beyond the self-abasement any Feverel could consent to. Pride, however, whose inevitable battle is against itself, drew aside the curtains of poor Tom's prison, crying a second time, "Behold your Benefactor!" and, with the words burning in his ears, Richard swallowed the dose: "Well, then, I want you, Mr. Blaize,—if you don't mind—will you help me to get this man Bakewell off his punishment?" To do Farmer Blaize justice, he waited very patiently for the boy, though he could not quite see why he did not take the gate at the first offer. "Oh!" said he, when he heard and had pondered on the request. "Hum! ha! we'll see about it t'morrow. But if he's innocent, you know, we shan't mak'n guilty." "It was I did it!" Richard declared. The farmer's half-amused expression sharpened a bit. "So, young gentleman! and you're sorry for the night's work?" "I shall see that you are paid the full extent of your losses." "Thank'ee," said the farmer drily. "And, if this poor man is released to-morrow, I don't care what the amount is." Farmer Blaize deflected his head twice in silence. "Bribery," one motion expressed: "Corruption," the other. "Now," said he, leaning forward, and fixing his elbows on his knees, while he counted the case at his fingers' ends, "excuse the liberty, but wishin' to know where this 'ere money's to come from, I sh'd like jest t'ask if so be Sir Austin know o' this?" "My father knows nothing of it," replied Richard. The farmer flung back in his chair. "Lie number Two," said his shoulders, soured by the British aversion to being plotted at, and not dealt with openly. "And ye've the money ready, young gentleman?" "I shall ask my father for it." "And he'll hand't out?" "Certainly he will!" Richard had not the slightest intention of ever letting his father into his counsels. "A good three hundred pounds, ye know?" the farmer suggested. No consideration of the extent of damages, and the size of the sum, affected young Richard, who said boldly, "He will not object when I tell him I want that sum." It was natural Farmer Blaize should be a trifle suspicious that a youth's guarantee would hardly be given for his father's readiness to disburse such a thumping bill, unless he had previously received his father's sanction and authority. "Hum!" said he, "why not 'a told him before?" The farmer threw an objectionable shrewdness into his query, that caused Richard to compress his mouth and glance high. Farmer Blaize was positive 'twas a lie. "Hum! Ye still hold to't you fired the rick?" he asked.