He wrote a line and folded it,
inclosing Lucy's signature.
"Let this go to Mr. Hardie's bank immediately. Hardie will give you
three per cent for your money. Better than nothing. You must have a
check-book. He sent me a new one yesterday. Here it is; you shall have
it. I wonder whether you know how to draw a check?"
"No, uncle."
"Look here, then. You note the particulars first on this counter-foil,
which thus serves in some degree for an account-book. In drawing the
check, place the sum in letters close to these printed words, and the
sum in figures close to the pound. For want of this precaution, the
holder of the check has been known to turn a 10 pound check into 110
pounds."
"Oh how wicked!"
"Mind what you say. Dexterity is the only virtue left in England; so
we must be on our guard, especially in what we write with our name
attached."
"I must say, Mr. Bazalgette, you are unwise to put such a sum of money
into a young girl's hands."
"The young girl has been a woman an hour and ten minutes, and come
into her property, movables, and cash aforesaid."
"If you were her real friend, you would take care of her money for her
till she marries."
"The eighth commandment, my dear, the eighth commandment, and other
primitive axioms: _suum cuique,_ and such odd sayings: 'Him as
keeps what isn't hisn, soon or late shall go to prison,' with similar
apothegms. Total: let us keep the British merchant and the Newgate
thief as distinct as the times permit.
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