“His creditors think he has more money, and money being the upshot of all his troubles, interposes the point of difficulty in the present instance.  I tell them he has no more money, but—­I know not why—­they doubt the fact the more, and refuse to release him, on the ground of my purchasing their claims at some ulterior period, as I did those two fi fas when the right of freedom was being contested in the children.  But, you see, Grabguy, I’m a man of standing; and no money would tempt me to have anything to do with another such case.  It was by a mere quirk of law, and the friendship of so many eminent lawyers, that I secured that fifteen hundred dollars from M’Carstrow for the gal what disappeared so mysteriously.”

“Graspum!” interrupts Mr. Grabguy, suddenly, accompanying his remark with a laugh, “you’re a good bit of a lawyer when it comes to the cross-grained.  You tell it all on one side, as lawyers do.  I know the risk you run in buying the fi fas on which those children were attached!” Mr. Grabguy smiles, doubtingly, and shakes his head.

“There are liabilities in everything,” Graspum drawls out, measuredly.  “Pardon me, my friend, you never should found opinion on suspicion.  More than a dozen times have I solicited Marston to file his schedule, and take the benefit of the act.  However, with all my advice and kindness to him, he will not move a finger towards his own release.  Like all our high-minded Southerners, he is ready to maintain a sort of compound between dignity and distress, with which he will gratify his feelings.  It’s all pride, sir-pride!-you may depend upon it.” (Graspum lays his hands together, and affects wondrous charity).  “I pity such men from the very bottom of my heart, because it always makes me feel bad when I think what they have been.  Creditors, sir, are very unrelenting; and seldom think that an honourable man would suffer the miseries of a prison rather than undergo the pain of being arraigned before an open court, for the exposition of his poverty.  Sensitiveness often founds the charge of wrong.  The thing is much misunderstood; I know it, sir!  Yes, sir!  My own feelings make me the best judge,” continues Graspum, with a most serious countenance.  He feels he is a man of wonderful parts, much abused by public opinion, and, though always trying to promote public good, never credited for his many kind acts.

Turning his head aside to relieve himself of a smile, Mr. Grabguy admits that he is quite an abused man; and, setting aside small matters, thinks it well to be guided by the good motto:—­’retire from business with plenty of money.’  It may not subdue tongues, but it will soften whispers.  “Money,” Mr. Grabguy intimates, “upon the strength of his venerable father’s experience, is a curious medium of overcoming the ditchwork of society.  In fact,” he assures Graspum, “that with plenty of shiners you may be just such a man as you please; everybody will forget that you ever bought or sold a nigger, and ten chances to one if you do not find yourself sloped off into Congress, before you have had time to study the process of getting there.  But, enough of this, Graspum;—­let us turn to trade matters.  What’s the lowest shot ye’ll take for that mellow mixture of Ingin and aristocracy.  Send up and bring him down:  let us hear the lowest dodge you’ll let him slide at.”