Mr. Banks

“ Marchant, “but Mr. Banks don't seem to take the interest in public affairs like what he ought to do. Howsomever,” dismissing this point, “what we've got to consider now is whether we've come to what they call in the newspapers the crucial moment, or whether we ought to go on a bit further.”
“Young party seems fairly bent on getting away this evening,” remarked the owner of The Windmill. “In fact, I may tell you all she's settled up her bill.”
“My idea is,” said Sprules, “that we've arrived at the limit. Enough is as good as a feast.”
“Is the dog all right?” asked Mrs. Marchant. ”

“ Mr Banks's confidence in Tubourai Tamaide had greatly--increased since the affair of the knife, in consequence of which he was at length exposed to temptations which neither his integrity nor his honour was able to resist. They had withstood many allurements, but were at length ensnared by the fascinating charms of a basket of nails: These nails were much larger than any that had yet been brought into trade, and had, with perhaps some degree of criminal negligence, been left in a corner of Mr Banks's tent, to which the chief had always free access. ”

“ General Banks earned for himself the reputation of being a thorough gentleman and, although his after career in the war was not signalized by much success, no failure on his part has been sufficient to erase the respect which he earned from people of all shades of political opinion in that region. His army occupied the low grounds between the Blue Ridge and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, as, also, Pleasant Valley, while the General's headquarters were at the house of Mr. Jacob Miller, near Sandy Hook. ”

“ Bank will be closed to-morrow, and I have come to you for advice.”
Mr. Blake looked at him in astonishment, as he went on; “I don’t know much about such matters, 170but I suppose there must be an assignee, and I want you for that and want you to see to things generally. There’ll be a terrible row—worse than the White’s—and I feel as if I were losing my mind.”
The lawyer asked no questions as to how it had happened. He thought he knew, and promised to do whatever he could.
“Have you thought of preferred creditors? Are there none whom you wish to have paid in full?” he asked. ”

“ The rent was paid as regularly as it had been in the little tenement in White’s Row. There was no other applicant for the premises, and he contented himself with raising the rent a hundred dollars, to which Mr. Grey made 15no demur. He was satisfied and happy, and an ideal banker, greeting every one with a pleasant smile and word, and making loans in small amounts where the risk was so great that the White Bank would never have taken it. To all human appearance he was on the top wave of prosperity and enjoyed it to the full. ”

“ What I do object to is the kind of collateral the banks demand. They always want something a man hasn’t got and, in most cases, hasn’t any chance of getting. If I had a thousand-dollar bond I wouldn’t need to borrow five hundred dollars, yet when I go to the bank and ask for the five hundred the thousand-dollar bond is what they ask for.”
“Not always,” said Mr. Brief. “If you can get your note indorsed you can get the money.”
“That’s true enough, but fellows like myself can’t always find a captain of industry who is willing to take a long-shot to do the indorsing,” said the Idiot. ”

“ HERBERT AND LOUIE Four years passed, and the Grey Bank had not come to the end of its rope. Many besides Widow Brown and old maid Smith, and washerwomen generally, deposited in it, and Mr. Grey seemed to be increasing in wealth and prosperity. ”

“ Mr. Grey replied; “but Nancy shall be the one. She took twenty dollars from White’s Bank, and put them into mine, where she already had a small sum. I have them intact yet, with her private mark upon them, and I want you to pay her back the same dollars. She has added small sums from time to time—put in five dollars yesterday—and now has in all some seventy-five dollars. I have quite a regard for Nancy. She’ll lead the mob, if there is one, and show fight, too!” ”

“ Banks is, as we have said a silent man. He does not pour out his heart in speech, as some of us do who have much less in our hearts than he. And there is surely no need. We want no prompting from him to feel that wrong must exist somewhere when a glorious integrity, a dignified virtue like his, has been allied with sinking fortunes through life, and has no prospect of repose but in the grave. [Pg 677]
JANE ECCLES; OR, CONFESSIONS OF AN ATTORNEY. The criminal business of the office was, during the first three or four years of our partnership, entirely superintended by Mr. Flint ”

“ But Jabez made no reply. He rose slowly and painfully, shook off the congratulatory crowd of strangers and friends, on the plea of needing to “warm and dry himself,” refused pointblank to accept the grateful hospitality of Mr. Aspinall, and taking the proffered arm of Travis, turned towards the “George and Dragon,” as little like one who had done a noble action as could be imagined.
Mr. Ashton followed, tapping his gold snuff-box in wonder and perplexity. He saw that something was wrong, but knew not that Augusta’s hasty thanks had closed the young man’s heart against all but its own pain. ”

“ The last outcome, I remember, was quite tame beside this.”
“Well, Augusta,” answered Ellen, “I believe he deserves it. I know my father thinks there is not such another young man as Mr. Clegg in all Manchester.”
“Yes, he’s very kind, and obliging, and clever, and perserving, and all that, and I like him very well; but then you know, Ellen, he is not a gentleman, and he is not handsome by any means,” responded Augusta, in quite a patronising tone.
Ellen looked grave.
“He is all that is good and noble, if he was not born a gentleman; and I think him handsome. ”

“ Two or three times he stopped to speak to people—to Godfrey 168Sheldon, and Nancy Sharp. She went to the office for the excitement, rather than because she expected anything. The sight of Mr. Sheldon gave him a twinge, but Nancy’s money was safe and his “Hallo, Nancy!” was more hearty than usual.
“Hallo, Mr. Grey! Will you be wantin’ your bank cleaned this week?” ”

“ Yes, he’d withdraw his money from Bob White and give it to Tom Grey, he decided, without any thought of creating a panic which might result in a run; nor had he any such idea when he spoke to two or three of his neighbors and told them what he was going to do, giving no reason, when asked for one, except that he knew what he was about and accompanying the words with a gesture which was more suggestive than words.
Some people are always suspicious of the soundness of a bank, and the few to whom Mr. Sheldon told his intentions were of this class, and all had money in White’s Bank. ”

“ General Banks was a firm believer in the justice of our cause, and he was animated by an unbounded confidence in our success,—a confidence which was not impaired in the darkest days of the Civil War. After the passing of a third of a century, a review of the entire field on the Civil side does not reveal a character more worthy than General Banks of high military command. In all the vicissitudes of his military career, and success did not always wait upon his undertakings, he never lost the confidence of Mr. ”

“ After a prolonged silence Jabez spoke.
“Mr. Ashton, I hold that love alone can sanctify marriage: my love has blossomed and died fruitless. Yet so highly do I esteem Miss Chadwick, and so proud am I of the great honour she has done me in her preference, that I place myself in your hands. If I can spare so amiable a young lady the pain I297 suffer from rejected love, I should be a brute and a savage to refuse her the remnant of a valueless life. We may at least soften its asperities for each other.” ”

“ The young man will be out of his time in six months; you can then advance him if you think proper—in the warehouse—but I do not feel disposed to open our drawing-room to him if that is what you are driving at;” and she drew herself up as if her dignity had received a blow.
“We-ll no—not exactly!” and Mr. Ashton, unable to express what he did mean exactly, shuffled and fidgeted till he upset his snuff on the Brussels carpet. ”

“ This was quite a speech for Herbert in Mr. Grey’s behalf, and after he had made it he felt that he had done a good thing for Louie, especially as the merchant to whom he was talking and who was not a heavy loser by the failure, replied, “That’s so. Grey is a good sort, and I don’t s’pose he has done worse than hundreds of bankers are doing all the time. He had bad luck and was caught, that’s all the difference. I had only fifty in the bank, and I’d rather lose that than see him dragged to prison as a few hot-heads seem to want to do ”

“ Mrs. Ashton was not quite so much at ease, though she was too well-bred to manifest her disquiet, which had two sources. In the first place, the presumptuous salutation of Augusta by Lieutenant Aspinall had jarred a sensitive nerve. In the second, Mr. Ashton, generously impulsive, had introduced Mr. Clegg to their friends, and as a friend of whom he was himself proud. She thoroughly appreciated Jabez, and equally contemplated his advancement; but she was for “making no more haste than good speed,” and considered it more prudent to raise him by insensible degrees. ”

“ Mr. Chalmers had been talking to Zura, but when he caught the word "bank" he included the entire company in his conversation. "Talking banks, are you? Well that is a pretty sore subject with me. Just lost my whole fortune in a bank. Had it hap [Pg 210] pened before the wedding I'd have been obliged to put the soft pedals on the merry marriage bells. Guess you heard about the million-dollar robbery of the Chicago Bank; biggest pile any one fellow ever got away with. ”

“ To crown all, nature had gifted him with a flexible voice, and art had set it to music.
The Liverpool schoolmaster had obeyed Mr. Aspinall’s instructions to the letter; all that education and accomplishments could do to polish and refine the physical man into the gentleman, as the word was then understood, had been done for him; but under the stucco was the rough brickwork Bob the groom had heaped together, and which no trained or loving hand had removed. ”

“ Laurence Aspinall’s reputation was as a yellow flag to warn gentlewomen who had daughters or husbands to lose against close intimacy with their neighbours of the Grange. Pitying the isolation of one so formed to adorn society, Mr. Aspinall gave mixed parties at Ardwick Green, in the name of Mrs. Laurence, when the splendour of her attire and the assiduous attention of her husband set rumour to contradict rumour. But save on an occasional family gathering, she saw few of her own sex at Fallowfield. ”

“ He threatened, and she answered—
“Threatened folk live long. You had best, Mr. Aspinall, keep your breath to cool your porridge. Augusta’s friends will defend her from her only enemy. Pending separation you see her no more.”
He never saw her more. The deed of separation was sealed but never signed.
With Augusta, all good angels seemed to have flown from Fallowfield. In his demoniac passion, he strove to blacken her character, to find himself met with laughter—his own life had been so chaste! ”

“ Clegg now, I reckon.”
“Now, Mother Clowes, don’t you give Jabez humbug of that sort; it’s sweet, but not wholesome. ‘Fine feathers make fine birds.’ He’s as proud as a peacock already. Mr. Clegg, indeed!—and him a ’prentice lad not out of his time! Let him stick to the name we gave him at his baptism—it’s worth all your fine Misters.” And Joshua turned off, muttering, “Mr. Clegg, indeed!” as he went away.
Neither the old woman in her antiquated gown and kerchief-covered mutch, nor the old parson in his cassock and square cap, modulated their loud voices. Jabez blushed painfully. ”

“ Marsland; while Jabez, from his distant seat, looked and longed in vain.
Cards were, as a matter of course, proposed for the amusement of this extemporised party; and in filling up tables for whist or loo, Mrs. Ashton’s fears for the sensibility of her friends were forgotten. They were utterly put to the rout by a loud rat-tat-tat at the street-door, followed by the entrance of Mr. Clough and the Reverend Joshua Brookes, the latter less vigorous than of yore, but in a state of unusual excitement. His loud voice was heard before he was seen. “Hogs, sir, hogs! They are no better than hogs, sir!” ”

“ William's eyes brightened, and his chest expanded under his Saturday's sullied smock-frock, as his early friend commended his handiwork, for
'Praise is pleasanter than honey,'
and hitherto he had not been cloyed with the sweetmeat. But his aspect changed. He did not relish the bitter dose of advice mingled with the honey, for his whole soul was in rebellion.
Yet, swift and sharp as the man's whip crack, memory brought back those other words to the same purport the stranger, Mr. Morris, had spoken long ago, and every hoof-beat of mule or ass seemed to hammer them into his brain. ”

“ It was vain to search for individuals; though well was his son’s prowess tested that day; more than one drowning wretch he clutched from behind by clothes or hair, and urged forward to the bank, where the Humane Society’s men, with ropes and grapnels, were ably seconded by volunteer humanity, and strong hands were outstretched to haul the helpless up.
Ben Travis had waited for Jabez, detained in the warehouse by courtesy to Mr. ”

“ Ashton, gravely, as she poured out the tea, giving something like milk-and-water to Miss Augusta. “You will spoil that child; and if you spoil her to-day, she will spoil herself to-morrow. However, as you are inclined to tolerate that which I think disrespectful to us, and wanting in self-respect on the child’s part, I can say no more.”
Thus Mrs. Ashton yielded against her judgment; Mr. Ashton took out his snuff-box, to put it back like a culprit; and Miss Augusta sat down to the table, not knowing whether to be more pleased or sorry that she had got her own way. ”