ANOTHER OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 157

was quite willing that she should do so. But
now and then came letters which she must not
see. Reynolds wrote to him, begging most urgently
for the address of that person who called him-
self Jervis; why he wanted it, he did not say,
but stated merely that it was on a. matter of vital
importance to himself. This letter put Williams in
a state of the greatest uneasiness ; for what purpose
could Reynolds want the address? Were the Bassetts
reviving the old subject? Was Reynolds himself going
to meddle in it? He wrote back a short reply. He
knew nothing of the person calling himself Jervis,
farther than that, to prevent the circulation of
reports unpleasant to himself, he had caused him
to remove to Birmingham. Reynolds must re-
member that he, Williams, had always considered
him an impostor.

Next came a letter from Williams's father. He
had obtained the address from the banker in London,
who was empowered to pay his allowance. He wrote
from Bath, whither he had removed from Birming-
ham, in consequence of the illness of his daughter.
He had been obliged to consult physicians for her;
her illness was expensive to him. He must trouble
his son for a further advance of money to meet this
exigency.

This letter, even more than the former, discom-
posed him, and, to silence this most fearful of corre-
spondents, he sent him an order on his banker, not,
however, without forbidding any further application
to himself ; and to his banker he also wrote, forbid-
ding his address in future being furnished to this his

P