"My lord," replied Tims, who was not a man to suppose that cunning could ever fail, "I will undertake the business and the risk. But, of course, your lordship must give me all your excellent advice and your powerful assistance. In the first place, you must allow me to bid my uncle send all his letters, and direct all the answers to be sent under cover to your lordship, and, in the next place, you must allow me to write immediately to Harding in your name." "Not without letting me see the letter!" exclaimed Lord Ashborough. "But that, of course; and, if you succeed, the five hundred pounds are yours." "Your lordship is ever generous and kind," replied Peter Tims; "and I will undertake to carry the matter through; but only"--and Mr. Tims was honest for once in his life, from the fear of after consequences--"but only I am afraid your lordship will not find the result put this Sir Sidney Delaware so completely is your power as you think." "How so?" demanded Lord Ashborough, turning upon him almost fiercely. "How so, sir? How so?" "Why, my lord," replied Mr. Tims, in a low and humble tone, "even suppose he is arrested, depend upon it, he will very easily find some one to lend him the money on the Emberton estates, to take up the bills he has given." The earl's eye flashed, and the dark and bitter spirit in his heart broke forth for the first time unrestrained. "Let me but have him in prison!" he exclaimed; "let me but have him once in prison, and I will so complicate my claims upon his pitiful inheritance, and so wring his proud heart with degradations, that the beggar who robbed me of my bride shall die as he has lived, in poverty and disappointment!" and in the vehemence with which the long-suppressed passion burst forth, he struck his hand upon the table, till the ink-glasses danced in their stand. Mr. Tims could understand envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness; but he was cowed by such vehemence as that into which the bare thought of seeing his detested rival in prison had betrayed his noble patron. Feeling, too, that he himself was not at all the sort of spirit to rule the whirlwind and direct the storm, he said a few quiet words about preparing every thing, and waiting on his lordship the next morning, and slunk away without more ado. CHAPTER X.