THE
SECOND MRS. TILLOTSON.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "NEVER FORGOTTEN."

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER X. A VISIT OF WELCOME.

DURING these times the Foncier Bank had
made great progress. It had become a rich,
plethoric, almost obese association. The clever
secretary had pushed it with extraordinary
energy and success. It was looming
and drifting along the great City waters like
a huge Spanish galleon. Some little unpretending
banking-craft, coming incautiously under
its stern, were swallowed up and destroyed.
Its shares were at a fine premium—were,
indeed, not to be procured; and the secret was,
every one said, "it was so judiciously managed:"
you had Tillotson, and "men like that." But
what would ever make up for the loss of
Bowater, who was so calm, so steady, and so
courteous? Should we ever forget his indescribable
eye travelling down the rows of figures?
His place was not to be readily supplied. We
must only look about, however, and get in New
Blood. This was always the secretary's cry,
"Blood! Blood!" like a ferocious Thug—that
is, "New Blood."

The secretary had in his eye the quantity of
New Blood that was contained in a certain Mr.
Lackson, who was known to the public as "the
great Lackson," and who was, besides, said by
the same innocent public to be able to do
what he liked with the Bank of England. He
was an enormous contractor and railway
proprietor; made railways, bought railways, made
huge works, and was now busy getting up a vast
society for supplying railway shedding—huge
roofs of unlimited span—to every company in
the kingdom.

The prospectus of "The Universal Railway
Roofing Company (Limited)" had been in every
newspaper for the last month. Like every other
thing that "he put his finger to," the admirers
said, this also would turn into gold. Yet he
was a stout, heavy, countryman-looking operator,
slow of speech, red in face, and wore a
huge waistcoat and a baggy dissenting clergyman's
tail-coat in the morning. Such a man,
the secretary said, would be worth his weight
in gold, which would have been a very large
weight of gold indeed; and the question of
his adhesion to the Foncier Company had
been only postponed until Mr. Tillotson came
back.

It has been mentioned that it was a different
Mr. Tillotson that came back—a gay, hopeful,
cheerful Mr. Tillotson, with a brow that was
open and clear, and a tongue that was loosened;
with a wit and judgment, too, as his colleagues
found, that had been surprisingly quickened.
All his sorrowful indifference had passed away.
He anticipated all their reasons, and struck
out brilliant ideas of his own. But against
the admission of "the great Lackson" he was
strong. He said, truly, they were doing
admirably, and the bank was strong enough; that
such men as Lackson were dangerous and
uncertain, and could only prove a dead weight on
their operations.

At several board meetings the matter was
gone over and over again. It was urged yet
more strongly, and as a chief ground, that he
had an enormous account with their house, which
it would be a pity to lose. At last Mr. Tillotson
gave way, and in the next report the directors
"had peculiar gratification in recommending to
the shareholders the well-known name of
William Lackson, Esq., for election as a director,
the value of whose adhesion to this great society
needs not be pointed out." William Lackson, on
that, joined the board, and the very week after
paid in as a mere current account a sum of over
twenty thousand pounds. "I shall, of course,"
said the great Lackson, "have now nothing
to do with any other house." And he came
regularly to the board, in his dissenting
tailcoat; said little, but to the purpose. He did
not, however, like Mr. Tillotson from the beginning,
who, he said, wanted "stuff," and was
not the man for the place.

Mr. Tillotson, only a week after his return—
when this matter had been finally settled—came
home gaily and hurriedly; for he was a little
late. He knew that two of the fine saddle-
horses which the captain had chosen were
being walked up and down before his house.
For every day they went out happily to ride in
the Park, and both found a new delight in this
exercise. But the horses were not yet brought
round, and he was about to run up-stairs to
apologise.

The gentle figure, in her riding-habit, came