VERY HARD CASH.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND."

CHAPTER LIV.

MR. HARDIE collapsed as if he had been a
man inflated, and that touch had punctured him.
"Ah!" said he. "Ah!" said Skinner, in a
mighty different tone: insolent triumph to
wit.

After a pause, Mr. Hardie made an effort and
said contemptuously: " The receipt (if any) was
flung into the dusthole and carried away. Do
you think I've forgotten that?"

"Don't you believe it, sir," was the reply.
"While you turned your back and sacked the
money, I said to myself, ' Oho, is that the game?'
and nailed the receipt. What a couple of scoundrels
we were! I wouldn't have her know it for
all your money. Come, sir, I see it's all right;
you will shell out sooner than be posted."

Here Peggy interposed: " Mr. Skinner, be
more considerate; my master is really poor just
now."

"That is no reason why I should be insulted
and indicted and trampled under foot," snarled
Skinner all in one breath.

"Show me the receipt and take my last
shilling, you ungrateful vindictive viper," groaned
Mr. Hardie.

"Stuff and nonsense," said Skinner. " I'm
not a viper; I'm a man of business. Find me
five hundred pounds; and I'll show you the receipt
and keep dark. But I can't afford to give
it you for that, of course."

Skinner triumphed, and made the great man
apologise, writhing all the time, and wishing he
was a day labourer with Peggy to wife, and fourteen
honest shillings a week for his income.
Having eaten humble pie, he agreed to meet
Skinner next Wednesday at midnight, alone,
under a certain lamp on the North Kensington-
road: the interval (four days) he required to
raise money upon his scrip. Skinner bowed
himself out, fawning triumphantly. Mr. Hardie
stood in the middle of the room motionless,
scowling darkly. Peggy looked at him, and
saw some dark and sinister resolve forming in
his mind: she divined it, as such women can
divine. She laid her hand on his arm, and said,
softly, " Richard, it's not worth that." He
started to find his soul read through his body
like a placard through a pane of glass. He
trembled.

But it was only for a moment. " His blood
be on his own head," he snarled. "This is not
my seeking. He shall learn what it is to drive
Richard Hardie to despair."

"No, no," said Peggy; "there are other
countries beside this: why not gather all you
have, and cross the water? I'll follow you to
the world's end, Richard."

"Mind your own business," said he fiercely.

She made no reply, but went softly and sat
down again, and sewed the buttons on his shirts.
Mr. Hardie wrote to Messrs. Heathfield to get
Hardie v. Hardie tried as soon as possible.

Meantime came a mental phenomenon: gliding
down Sackville-street, victorious, Skinner suddenly
stopped, and clenched his hands; and his
face writhed as if he had received a death-wound.
In that instant Remorse had struck him like
lightning; and, perhaps, whence comes the
lightning. The sweet face and voice that had
smiled on him, and cared for his body, and cared
for his soul, came to his mind and knocked at
his heart and conscience. He went home
miserable with an inward conflict; and it lasted him
all the four days: sometimes Remorse got the
better, sometimes Avarice. He came to the interview
still undecided what he should do. But,
meantime, he had gone to a lawyer and made his
will, leaving his little all to Julia Dodd: a bad
sign this; looked like compounding with his
awakened conscience.

It was a dark and gusty night. Very few
people were about. Skinner waited a little
while, and shivered, for his avarice had postponed
the purchase of a great-coat until Christmas-day.
At last, when the coast seemed clear,
Mr. Hardie emerged from a side-street. Skinner
put his hand to his bosom.

They met. Mr. Hardie said quietly, " I must
ask you, just for form, to show me you have the
Receipt."

"Of course, sir; but not so near, please: no
snatching, if I know it."

"You are wonderfully suspicious," said Mr.
Hardie, trying to smile.

Skinner looked, and saw by the lamplight he
was deadly pale. " Keep your distance a moment,
sir," said he, and on Mr. Hardie's complying