CHAPTER VI.
CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED.
A cab conveyed Mr. Sheldon swiftly to a dingy street in the City--a
street which might have been called the pavement of wasted footsteps, so
many an impecunious wretch tramped to and fro upon those dreary flags in
vain.
The person whom Mr. Sheldon came to see was a distinguished
bill-discounter, who had served him well in more than one crisis, and on
whose service he fancied he could now rely.
Mr. Kaye, the bill-discounter, was delighted to see his worthy friend Mr.
Sheldon. He had just come up from his family at Brighton, and had quite a
little court awaiting him in an outer chamber, through which Mr. Sheldon
had been ushered to the inner office.
"It's rather early for such a visitor as you," Mr. Kaye said, after a few
commonplaces. "I have not been in town half an hour."
"My business is too important for any consideration about hours,"
answered Mr. Sheldon, "or I should not be here at all. I have just come
from the deathbed of my wife's daughter."
"Indeed!" exclaimed the bill-discounter, looking inexpressibly
shocked. Until that moment he had lived in supreme ignorance of the
fact that Mr. Sheldon had a stepdaughter; but his sorrow-stricken
expression of countenance might have implied that he had known and
esteemed the young lady.
"Yes, it's very sad," said Mr. Sheldon; "and something more than sad for
me.
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