CHAPTER XVII 



RESIDENCE AT NEATH 



At Easter I bade farewell to Leicester and went to Neath 

 with my brother John, in order to wind up our brother 

 William's affairs. We found from his books that a con- 

 siderable amount was owing to him for work done during the 

 past year or two, and we duly made out accounts of all these 

 and sent them in to the respective parties. Some were paid 

 at once, others we had to write again for and had some 

 trouble to get paid. Others, again, were disputed as being an 

 extravagant charge for the work done, and we had to put 

 them in a lawyer's hands to get settled. One gentleman, 

 whose account was a few pounds, declared he had paid it, 

 and asked us to call on him. We did so, and, instead of 

 producing the receipt as we expected, he was jocose about 

 it, asked us what kind of business men we were to want him 

 to pay twice ; and when we explained that it was not shown 

 so in my brother's books, and asked to look at the receipt, he 

 coolly replied, " Oh, I never keep receipts ; never kept a 

 receipt in my life, and never was asked to pay a bill twice till 

 now ! " In vain we urged that we were bound as trustees for 

 the rest of the family to collect all debts shown by my brother's 

 books to be due to him, and that if he did not pay it, we 

 should have to lose the amount ourselves. He still maintained 

 that he had paid it, that he remembered it distinctly, and 

 that he was not going to pay it twice. At last we were 

 obliged to tell him that if he did not pay it we vmst put it 

 in the hands of a lawyer to take what steps he thought 

 VOL. I. 241 r 



