_Thursday, June 12_.--Letters from Billsbury arrive by every post,
Horticultural Societies, sea-side excursions, Sunday School pic-nics,
cricket club _fêtes_, all demand subscriptions, and, as a rule,
get them. If this goes on much longer I shall be wound up in the
Bankruptcy Court. Shall have to make a stand soon, but how to begin is
the difficulty. Pretty certain in any case to put my foot down in the
wrong place, and offend everybody. Amongst other letters came this
one:--
_4, Stone Street, Billsbury, June 10._
[Illustration: "I will give any security you like."]
Sir,--I venture to appeal to your generosity in a matter which I am
sure you will recognise to be of the highest importance. My services
to the Conservative Party in Billsbury are well-known. I can safely
say that no man has, during the last ten years, worked harder than I
have to promote Conservative interests, and for a smaller reward. My
exertions at the last election brought on a violent attack of malarial
fever, which laid me up for some months, and from which I still
suffer. The shaky character of my hand-writing attests the sufferings
I have gone through, and the shattered condition of my bodily health
at the present moment. I lost my situation as head-clerk in the Export
Department of the Ironmongers' Association, and found myself, at the
age of forty, compelled to begin life again with a wife and three
children. Everything I have turned my hand to has failed, and I am in
dire want. May I ask you, under these circumstances, to be so good
as to advance me £500 for a few months. I will give any security you
like. Perhaps I might repay some part of the loan by doing work for
you during the election. This must be a small matter to a wealthy
and generous man like you. To me it is a matter of life and death.
Anxiously awaiting your early and favourable reply, and begging you to
keep this application a secret,