Perhaps he knows more about his daughter than he cares to let out; knows that she is sickly, and that he stands a good chance of surviving her." There was indeed a lurking desperation under Percival Nowell's airy manner, of which the people amongst whom he lived had no suspicion.
Unless some sudden turn in the wheel of fortune should change the aspect of affairs for him very soon, ruin, most complete and utter, was inevitable.

A man cannot go on very long without money; and in order to pay his hotel-bill Mr.Nowell had been obliged to raise the funds from an accommodating gentleman with whom he had done business in years gone by, and who was very familiar with his own and his father's autograph.

The bill upon which this gentleman advanced the money in question bore the name of Jacob Nowell, and was drawn at three months.

Percival had persuaded himself that before the three months were out his father would be in his grave, and his executors would scarcely be in a position to dispute the genuineness of the signature.

In the meantime the money thus obtained enabled him to float on.