180 AGAIN, OLD AND NEW ACQUAINTANCE.

sophical calmness, and had it been twenty times the
sum, he would have done the same. What infinite
folly seemed now all his connection with players and
all such low people! It seemed to him a merciful
deliverance to have done with Jessie Bannerman.

He renewed his acquaintance with Tom Bassett,
who was now a prosperous lawyer, living on the
sunny side of life, in the pleasant little town of
Burton-on-Trent. Tom was a very prosperous man,
and had just married the daughter of a rich country
gentleman, A prosperous country banker too was
the elder brother, with a fine country-seat as well as
his house in the county-town. The Bassetts were
people with whom it was creditable to associate, and
with them Williams talked of investments and pur-
chases. He began to turn his mind to the buying of
a country-house. Though his name was the first in
the firm, and stood in great gold letters over the
shop-door, he was very rarely now at the shop—came
now and then as a convenience—dined there and
slept there occasionally, but ‘passed most of his
time in a lovely cottage ornée, which he had taken
furnished, by the’ month, near Burton.

Williams cultivated the Bassetts’ acquaintance with
more zeal than they his. All at once, however, the
lawyer became very zealous; it had occurred to him
that the family might make use of him on a particu-
lar occasion. Williams talked often of buying a small
estate, with a good house upon it. The Bassetts
had one to sell. It had belonged to the late Mrs.
Bassett ; it was the property of the daughter, who
now occupied it, but, finding it lonely during the
winter, she wished to leave it. Her brothers advised
her to sell it, and invest the money in railroad shares,