called on her and informed her that checks of my signing to a very large
amount had lately been offered, and that the last made its appearance
to-day, and was presented by a man with whom it was highly disreputable
for one in my condition to be thought to have any sort of intercourse.

You may suppose that, after this introduction, I made haste to explain
every particular. My mother was surprised and grieved. She rebuked me,
with some asperity, for my reserves. Had I acquainted her with my
brother's demands, she could have apprized me of all that I had since
discovered. My brother, she asserted, was involved beyond any one's power
to extricate him, and his temper, his credulity, were such that he was
forever doomed to poverty.

I had scarcely parted with my mother on this occasion, to whom I had
promised to refer every future application, when my brother made his
appearance. I was prepared to overwhelm him with upbraidings for his past
conduct, but found my tongue tied in his presence. I could not bear to
inflict so much shame and mortification; and besides, the past being
irrevocable, it would only aggravate the disappointment which I was
determined every future application should meet with. After some vague
apology for non-payment, he applied for a new loan. He had borrowed, he
said, of a deserving man, a small sum, which he was now unable to repay.
The poor fellow was in narrow circumstances; was saddled with a numerous
family; had been prevailed upon to lend, after extreme urgency on my
brother's part; was now driven to the utmost need, and by a prompt
repayment would probably be saved from ruin. A minute and plausible
account of the way in which the debt originated, and his inability to
repay it shown to have proceeded from no fault of his.

I repeatedly endeavoured to break off the conversation, by abruptly