It is ill fighting when the spirit is gone, and Mr. Sowerby's spirit
for such things was now well nigh broken. It is true that he had
escaped from the net in which the duke, by Mr. Fothergill's aid,
had entangled him; but he had only broken out of one captivity into
another. Money is a serious thing; and when gone cannot be had back
by a shuffle in the game, or a fortunate blow with the battledore, as
may political power, or reputation, or fashion. One hundred thousand
pounds gone, must remain as gone, let the person who claims to have
had the honour of advancing it be Mrs. B. or my Lord C. No lucky
dodge can erase such a claim from the things that be--unless, indeed,
such dodge be possible as Mr. Sowerby tried with Miss Dunstable. It
was better for him, undoubtedly, to have the lady for a creditor than
the duke, seeing that it was possible for him to live as a tenant in
his own old house under the lady's reign. But this he found to be a
sad enough life, after all that was come and gone.
The election on Miss Dunstable's part was lost. She carried on the
contest nobly, fighting it to the last moment, and sparing neither
her own money nor that of her antagonist; but she carried it on
unsuccessfully. Many gentlemen did support Mr.
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