CHAPTER XXI.
IN WHICH JIM GETS THE FURNITURE INTO HIS HOUSE, AND MIKE CONLIN GETS ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF ADVICE INTO JIM.
Jim had a weary winter.

He was obliged to hire and to board a number of workmen, whom it was necessary to bring in from Sevenoaks, to effect the finishing of his house.

His money ran low at last, and Mr.Benedict was called upon to write a letter to Mr.Balfour on his behalf, accepting that gentleman's offer of pecuniary assistance.

This was a humiliating trial to Jim, for he had hoped to enter upon his new life free from the burden of debt; but Mr.Balfour assured him that he did not regard his contribution to the building-fund as a loan--it was only the payment for his board in advance.
Jim was astonished to learn the extent of Miss Butterworth's resources.
She proposed to furnish the house from the savings of her years of active industry.

She had studied it so thoroughly during its progress, though she had never seen it, that she could have found every door and gone through every apartment of it in the dark.