Is your father--is he no more ?" "He lives," said I, "thank God! but to what distress and difficulty"-- "If that be all, despair not, May I read this letter ?" she said, taking it up.
I assented, hardly knowing what I said.

She read it with great attention.
"Who is this Mr.Tresham, who signs the letter ?" "My father's partner"-- (your own good father, Will)--"but he is little in the habit of acting personally in the business of the house." "He writes here," said Miss Vernon, "of various letters sent to you previously." "I have received none of them," I replied.
"And it appears," she continued, "that Rashleigh, who has taken the full management of affairs during your father's absence in Holland, has some time since left London for Scotland, with effects and remittances to take up large bills granted by your father to persons in that country, and that he has not since been heard of." "It is but too true." "And here has been," she added, looking at the letter, "a head-clerk, or some such person,--Owenson--Owen--despatched to Glasgow, to find out Rashleigh, if possible, and you are entreated to repair to the same place, and assist him in his researches." "It is even so, and I must depart instantly." "Stay but one moment," said Miss Vernon.

"It seems to me that the worst which can come of this matter, will be the loss of a certain sum of money;--and can that bring tears into your eyes?
For shame, Mr.
Osbaldistone!" "You do me injustice, Miss Vernon," I answered.

"I grieve not for the loss of the money, but for the effect which I know it will produce on the spirits and health of my father, to whom mercantile credit is as honour; and who, if declared insolvent, would sink into the grave, oppressed by a sense of grief, remorse, and despair, like that of a soldier convicted of cowardice or a man of honour who had lost his rank and character in society.

All this I might have prevented by a trifling sacrifice of the foolish pride and indolence which recoiled from sharing the labours of his honourable and useful profession.