necessities; and had now left the money which their paper represented
to be paid by their London correspondents as it fell due. In some
instances, they had sent nothing but promises and excuses. In others,
they had forwarded drafts on firms which had failed already, or which
were about to fail, in the crisis. After first exhausting his
resources in ready money, Mr. Branca had provided for the more pressing
necessities by pledging the credit of the house, so far as he _could_
pledge it without exciting suspicion of the truth. This done, there were
actually left, between that time and Christmas, liabilities to be met to
the extent of forty thousand pounds, without a farthing in hand to pay
that formidable debt.

After working through the night, this was the conclusion at which
Richard Turlington arrived, when the rising sun looked in at him through
the windows of his private room.

The whole force of the blow had fallen on _him_. The share of his
partners in the business was of the most trifling nature. The capital
was his, the risk was his. Personally and privately, _he_ had to find
the money, or to confront the one other alternative--ruin.

How was the money to be found?

With his position in the City, he had only to go to the famous
money-lending and discounting house of Bulpit Brothers--reported to
"turn over" millions in their business every year--and to supply himself
at once with the necessary funds. Forty thousand pounds was a trifling
transaction to Bulpit Brothers.

Having got the money, how, in the present state of his trade, was the