his exorbitant demands; if not, and danger was really to be feared, it would be equally easy to conciliate Sackville at a more advanced stage of the business.

CHAPTER XV.

Which is the villain ?-let me see his eyes,
That when I note another man like him,
I may avoid him.

Much ado about Nothing.

AFTER watching the struggles and broodings of guilt, we will now turn to the more agreeable contemplation, of the steps pursued by Lacy for vindicating his injured honour. He had now learnt that Mr. Morton suspected him of having behaved with the basest treachery-of having, at the time of his frank and friendly declaration on the hustings, secretly participated in a plot, which was to secure him the election, by plunging his opponent into ruin and disgrace. He did Mr. Morton the justice to believe, that these injurious suspicions had not been gratuitously

assumed. He believed them to have been suggested by others; and it was now his task to unravel the tissue of misrepresentations by which those suggestions had been conveyed. He preferred, for the prudential reasons which we have mentioned above, to effect his justification without communicating with Mr. Morton, but to prove the absence of all collusion from the confessions of those by whom the legal process had been conducted.

In this investigation he was favoured by accident. He had been applied to, by a person of the name of Wilkinson, for his recommendation and assistance in procuring an office then vacant in the county. The applicant hinted in his letter, which was worded rather obscurely, that this request, if granted, would not be the first obligation he had received; but hoped, that he should not be considered altogether an undeserving object. To this Lacy replied by professing his ignorance of any other favour that he had conferred, or cause that existed for

it-declining to recommend without a knowledge of the qualification of the parties, and declaring that, cæteris paribus, he must support the application of another person.

It was soon after the dispatch of this answer, that Lacy left London for Wichcombe. One of his objects, when in that neighbourhood, was to see the attorney employed against Mr. Morton, and the creditor who sued him for debt, and to discover if they had any knowledge of the existence of such an injurious opinion as Mr. Morton seemed to entertain. A short inquiry soon informed him that the creditor of Mr. Morton, and the man of the name of Wilkinson, who had lately written to him, were one and the same person. Wilkinson lived at no great distance from Wichcombe, and no sooner had he heard of Lacy's arrival in that town, than he came over to see him, full of indignation at the unfavourable manner in which his application had been met.

"I am not a Wichcombe voter, Sir," said

the man; "but I think I deserve some encouragement, for all that; for I can make bold to say that I have done you a good turn, and at the last election too."

"Explain yourself," said Lacy.

"Oh, there is no need of that: you know well enough, Sir, that I was the person who sent the bailiffs to Dodswell, and made Mr. Morton give up the contest."

"I know it now," said Lacy.

The man smiled at the implied denial of having known it before.

"Even if that circumstance had gained me the election," pursued Lacy, "which it did not, for I was at the head of the poll before it occurred, I should be very sorry that it should be considered any reason for my favouring or assisting you.'

"Oh, certainly, Sir,-" replied the man, with an odd look of intelligence, "it need not be con

sidered SO; but you know it is a reason between

ourselves."