he balanced his chair which was in itself an offence to Mr Crosbie’s personal dignity.  It was hardly as yet two months since Mr Dobbs Broughton had assured him in that very room that there need not be the slightest anxiety about his bill.  Of course it could be renewed—­the commission being duly paid.  As Mr Dobbs Broughton explained on that occasion, that was his business.  There was nothing he liked so much as renewing bills for such customers as Mr Crosbie; and he was very candid at that meeting, explaining how he did this branch of his business, raising money on his own credit at four or five per cent., and lending it on his own judgment at eight or nine.  Mr Crosbie did not feel himself then called upon to exclaim that what he was called upon to pay was about twelve, perfectly understanding the comfort and grace of euphony; but he had turned it over in his mind, considering whether twelve per cent. was not more than ought to be mulcted for the accommodation he wanted.  Now, at the moment, he would have been glad to get it from Mr Musselboro, without further words, for twenty.

Things had much changed with Adolphus Crosbie when he was driven to make morning visits to such a one as Mr Musselboro with the view of having a bill renewed for two hundred and fifty pounds.  In his early life he had always had the merit of being a careful man as to money.  In some other respects he had gone astray very foolishly—­as has been partly explained in our earlier chapters; but up to the date of his marriage with Lady Alexandrina De Courcy he had never had dealings in Hook Court or in any such locality.  Money troubles had then come upon him.  Lady Alexandrina, being the daughter of a countess, had high ideas; and when, very shortly after his marriage, he had submitted to a separation from his noble wife, he had found himself and his income to be tied up inextricably in the hands of Mr Mortimer Gazebee, a lawyer who had married one of his wife’s sisters.  It was not that Mr Gazebee was dishonest; nor did Crosbie suspect him of dishonesty; but the lawyer was so wedded to the interest of the noble family with which he was connected, that he worked for them all as an inferior spider might be supposed to work, which, from the infirmity of its nature, was compelled by instincts to be catching flies for superior spiders.  Mr Mortimer Gazebee had in this way entangled Mr Crosbie in his web on behalf of those noble spiders, the De Courcys, and our poor friend, in his endeavour to fight his way through the web, had fallen into the hands of the Hook Court firm of Mrs Van Siever, Dobbs Broughton, and Musselboro.

‘Mr Broughton told me when I was last here,’ said Crosbie, ’that there would be no difficulty about it.’

‘And it was renewed then; wasn’t it?’

’Of course it was—­for two months.  But he was speaking of a continuation of renewal.’

’I’m afraid we can’t do it, Mr Crosbie.  I’m afraid we can’t, indeed.  Money is so awful tight.’