"SIR,--Messrs ---- are directed to inform you of the sum of £300 placed to your credit. You will be wrongly advised if you scruple to use it. If at any time you are enabled, and desire it, it may be repaid through the same channel.
"I have never touched it," said Russell, as I folded up the note.
"I should have feared you would not," said I.
"But now," he proceeded, "now things seem changed with me. I shall want money--Mary will; and I shall draw upon this unseen charity; ay, and gratefully. Poor Mary!"
"You are quite right, my dear Russell," said I, eager to interrupt a train of thought which I saw would be too much for him. "I will manage all that for you, and you shall give me the necessary authority till you get well again yourself," I added in a tone meant to be cheerful.
He took no notice of my remark. "I fear," said he, "I have not been a wise counsellor to my poor sister. She had kind offers from more than one of our friends, and might have had a home more suited to her than this has been, and I allowed her to choose to sacrifice all her own prospects to mine!"
He turned his face away, and I knew that one painful thought besides was in his mind--that they had been solely dependent on her little income for his support at the University since his father's failure.
"Russell," said I gently, "this conversation can surely do no good; why distress yourself and me unnecessarily? Come, I shall leave you now, or your sister will scold me. Pray, for all our sakes, try to sleep; you know how desirable it is, and how much stress Dr Wilson has laid upon your being kept perfectly calm and quiet."
"I will, Hawthorne, I will try; but oh, I have so much to think of!"
Distressed and anxious, I could only take my leave of him for the present, feeling how much there was, indeed, in his circumstances to make rest even more necessary, and more difficult to obtain, for the mind than for the body.
I had returned to the sitting-room, and was endeavouring to give as hopeful answers as I could to Miss Russell's anxious inquiries as to what I thought of her brother, when a card was brought up, with a message that Mr Ormiston was below, and "would be very glad if he could see Miss Russell for a few moments, at any hour she would mention, in the course of the day."