"Oh, thirty or forty pounds!" she said, her heart beating with wild
anxiety.

"Thirty pounds! Why, that is a fortune!"

"It would be to us," said Katherine, fighting bravely against a
desperate inclination to cry.

"And all you have to offer in exchange is a mortgage on an unpublished
novel?"

"We have nothing in the world but the furniture," she replied, with a
slight sob.

"Furniture!" repeated Mr. Liddell, sharply. "How much?--how many rooms
have you?"

"A drawing-room and dining-room, my mother's study, and four bedrooms,
besides--"

"Well!" exclaimed Liddell, interrupting her, "you'll have a hundred
pounds' worth in it, and I dare say it cost you two. Now you have shown
you have some knowledge of the value of money, and you have served me
well at this uncomfortable crisis. I'll tell you what I will do; I'll
write to my solicitor to go and see you, at the address you have told
me, to-morrow. He shall find out if you are speaking the truth, and look
at your goods and chattels. If he reports favorably I will do something
for you, on the security of the furniture. You haven't given a bill of
sale to any one else, I suppose?"