beside--but you must not allow yourself to be ruined through timidity;
and if you go to the wall without an effort, and allow yourself to be
slurred in public, what becomes of your chance of preferment?'

And now 'title' went up to Burlington, Smith, and Co. to examine and
approve; and from that firm, I am sorry to say, a bill of costs was
coming, when deeds were prepared and all done, exceeding three hundred
and fifty pounds; and there was a little reminder from good Jos. Larkin
for two hundred and fifty pounds more. This, of course, was to await Mr.
Wylder's perfect convenience. The vicar knew _him_--_he_ never pressed
any man. Then there would be insurances in proportion; and interest, as
we see, was not trifling. And altogether, I am afraid, our friend the
vicar was being extricated in a rather embarrassing fashion.

Now, I have known cases in which good-natured debauchees have interested
themselves charitably in the difficulties of forlorn families; and I
think _I_ knew, almost before they suspected it, that their generous
interference was altogether due to one fine pair of eyes, and a pretty
_tournure_, in the distressed family circle. Under a like half-delusion,
Mr. Jos. Larkin, in the guise of charity, was prosecuting his designs
upon the vicar's reversion, and often most cruelly and most artfully,
when he frankly fancied his conduct most praiseworthy.

And really I do not myself know, that, considering poor William's
liabilities and his means, and how many chances there were against that
reversion ever becoming a fact, that I would not myself have advised his
selling it, if a reasonable price were obtainable.

'All this power will I give thee,' said the Devil, 'and the glory of
them; for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it.'