UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 159 



To be in debt, Mr. P. considered a state of 

 actual disgrace, and he would have gladly sold 

 his patrimony to emancipate himself from the 

 load ; but it was entailed. There were two other 

 ways, either to raise money on mortgage ; or, if 

 his creditors would give him time, to devote the 

 chief part of his income to a fund for the par- 

 pose of liquidating their full claims ; and, in 

 the mean time, to live on bread and water if 

 necessary. He turned over in his mind also a 

 hundred different schemes for employing his time 

 and talents, so as to augment our means ; for I 

 could see, that though he dreaded the privations 

 which I must endure, yet that one of his greatest 

 difficulties was the doubt, whether I could con- 

 form to the rigorous parsimony that we were 

 now called on to practise. Anxious for advice, he 

 rode off to consult his old friend and counsellor 

 Mr. Crispin, whom we had not seen for a long 

 time ; and I was rather surprised by his return 

 the same evening, as he generally slept at the 

 Hall, when he went there. He looked agitated, 

 and though he treated me with more tenderness 

 than usual, since our misfortune had burst upon 

 him, yet he refused to tell me the result of his 

 consultation. 



In the evening, however, after a long silence 

 he suddenly turned round to the table where 

 I was actually endeavouring to discipline my 



P2 



