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300 According to the advice given by the lawyer, he had written letters of accommodation to those of his creditors found to be the most refractory; but finding them difficult to deal with, and unwilling to enter into terms, De Brooke was reflecting on the perplexing dilemma into which he was thrown, when, hearing a knock without, he rose, and perceived a stranger at his door, who after handing him a packet instantly retired.

De Brooke hastened to break the seal. The arms and crest were not unknown to him; and in looking for the signature, it proved even as he had conjectured. The envelope inclosed a letter from Sir Henry Hodson, together with the money of which he had been so long deprived, and of which he then stood in so much need. His heart beat quick with expectation; his deliverance seemed now secure, and could not but be speedily accomplished. In reckoning over the amount, he found that with the addition of what his father bestowed upon him, he should now have sufficient to satisfy the most exorbitant of his creditors; so that much as he, and still more his wife, had found cause to deplore the loss of his money, it came returned to them most opportunely. Handing the letter to his wife, who, if not always a participator in the secret of his woes, was a welcome sharer in