into his service--whenever he could get their services for nothing--and

by one means and another filled many notebooks with the results of his

researches.

In these wanderings he spent several years, and only returned to England

when the increasing age of his charges needed his attention. The two

lads had been placed in a good but economical school, where they had

received a sound commercial education; which was somewhat awkward, as

the leather business was by no means in a state to court enquiry. In

fact, when Joseph went over his accounts preparatory to surrendering his

trust, he was dismayed to discover that his brother's fortune had not

increased by his stewardship; even by making over to his two wards

every penny he had in the world, there would still be a deficit of seven

thousand eight hundred pounds. When these facts were communicated to the

two brothers in the presence of a lawyer, Morris Finsbury threatened

his uncle with all the terrors of the law, and was only prevented from

taking extreme steps by the advice of the professional man. 'You cannot

get blood from a stone,' observed the lawyer.

And Morris saw the point and came to terms with his uncle. On the one

side, Joseph gave up all that he possessed, and assigned to his

nephew his contingent interest in the tontine, already quite a hopeful

speculation. On the other, Morris agreed to harbour his uncle and Miss

Hazeltine (who had come to grief with the rest), and to pay to each

of them one pound a month as pocket-money. The allowance was amply

sufficient for the old man; it scarce appears how Miss Hazeltine

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