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    1048 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    say , in the Universe , and was not prepared to give an account of himself to any one who should challenge him . Unlike his wife , he received me quietly indeed , but with a manner that amounted to a confession of all that could be said against him . His burly form had collapsed into a slack heap of incompetency ; his ruddy cheeks hung in dead-coloured festoons upon his face . I have often seen uglier men , very often men whose crimes stood apparent on their countenance , but never saw a man so fallen beneath the level of every sympathy except that of pity . I attempted to converse with him , and to cheer him up ; but he scarcely answered , and what little he did say it made me feel that the attempt to console only rendered him the more conscious that no consolation availed him . Hoping to profit

    in some degree from the stimulus of my presence , his wife urged him to fall back upon his Bible ; but he looked at her with the heavy abstracted eve of suffering that remonstrates against disturbance . Casting up a glance at Heaven outraged by his want of resignation , she left him to his fate , and to me . I never had such a mass of helplessness on my hands , and never knew so little what to do with it . As I looked at his heavy countenance , from which all ideas had been abstracted by the commercial defalcation , I could not divine to myself any means by which I could approach the lurking

    spark of mind to revive it . I walked up and down the room j but he seemed almost unconscious , of my presence , while I remained as it were watching the dead body of my unhappy friend against the intrusion of evil spirits , or any greater extremity . One of his clerks looked in , and told him , with a manner of ostentatious insolence , that Rogers wanted to speak to him . The impertinence of the man seemed for a moment to rouse the courage of the downfallen potentate , and with a voice of much dignity he sent word that Rogers should come in the evening " with the rest . " He waved his hand ; and the clerk looked at him for a moment ; the vulgar

    sense of the man was striving to conceive the idea of misfortune an its full meaning ; and after gazing with a countenance in which impertinence gradually subsided to a sort of contemptuous indifferentism , as though it were " all up with the governor , " he closed the door . He evidently thought that Rogers and " the rest" might be too late , and wished himself out of that disagreeable day . Your Englishmen of every class detest a coroner ' s inquest above all things . It is an uncomfortable ceremony— -disagreeable ; violating the distinctions of society , and dragging the respectable person before a public-house tribunal .

    Not long afterwards another of the clerks looked in . It was Sophy ' s friend ; something perhaps of an indirect thought of consanguinity had touched the sympathies of the young man . He looked at his master with an air of concern , and came on tip-toe towards me to tell me that another person was there whose name 1 did not know , as if I were already the authority to settle the commercial affairs of Mr . Johnson . As quietly as I could , I asked him if it would not be better to recommend the intruder to come " with the rest "; to which he assented .

    I remained there all that morning , people occasionally coming in . The very respectable matron occasionally entering to administer comfort to her helpmate , who received it with an air of resigned despondency sufficient to suggest the most desperate courses . Even the proposal of " something to eat" fell flat upon his ear . After long endurance of tedious despondency , suddenly the door of the room opened and , unexpected as a ghost , in rushed Margaret—her arm out of its sling—her cheeks flushed—her

    countenance excited rather than desponding . She threw herself into her father ' s arms , and covered his face all over with kisses . The storm of comfort seized the man ; bursting out in a cry like that of a child , he clasped Ins arms around that of his daughter , hid his face in her bosom , and fairly wept aloud . The first sign of self-possession in the man was shown in his solicitude lest the girl had hurt her broken arm . But no harm had been done . With her other arm round his shapeless form , Margaret sustained her father , called in her mother and sister , and ordered dinner to

    be brought ; and they all submitted in willing obedience . They were glad of a compulsion which restored them from calamity to the comfortable trivialities of life . Existence again went on ; and by the help of a little wine , I induced Johnson to confront bis fate . It was evidently the meeting in the evening that lie dreaded ; but somehow , without any great expenditure of intellectual devices , we managed to get over the day till that evening , and 1 undertook to stand by him in his adversity .

    1 shall not attempt to describe that meeting to you , nor the anomalous position which 1 tilled there . The . meeting was held in bis own countinghouse ; some fifteen or twenty men present—all bis principal creditors . Souk : few looked more stricken down than be was ; one or two perhaps bcrau . se his calamity pressed still more heavily upon themselves . When any man falls in English trade , be carries more with him , ami often those ; who are poorer than himself . The others were of a craven sort ; , to whom any adversity was a terror and a scourge . Some came in rubbing their bands ,

    pleased with activity in any " matter of business ; " one or two were elaborately considerate ; some others bluntly impertinent . They sat round the table , lounged in chairs , made themselves quite at home and proceeded to anatomise , not only bis books , not , only bis private circumstances , or bis personal expenditure , but his character , bis moral motives ; the conduct of bis household , the wardrobe of his ( laughters , and every petty detail that could be made to assume a pecuniary significance . With some it , was the sport of open amusement ; others were seized by the spirit of hunting , and grew heuted in the inoeeas of ferreting out " improper" charges ; others

    greedily searched through the figures in the hope of finding a few more pen for themselves . One or two were evidently actuated by sheer malignit ; with a desire to damn the man who had disappointed them of some profit * Johnson himself cut a better figure than he had daring the day . He w great at figures , and felt his confidence . If he had failed , others had ioT so before , and he knew the precedents ; which he cited with aplomb , " H * admitted that his expenditure had been unguarded in trade ; but it vr & only in trade . His domestic expenditure had not been unreasonable Th assembly admitted that ; but the recent fitting-up of his shop what war rant had he for so much under that head ? " Competition in trade , " he said . " His neighbours , " and he looked with peculiar bitterness at Rogers , " had been making a great show ; and he was obliged to do the

    same to keep his customers . " The argument was held to be good . Brass bars , gilt letters , and handsome glass bottles , do attract people who come for half ounces of tea and pennyworths of ginger , or the tradesmen suppose that they do so . Still Rogers insisted that the expenditure was excessive . "It is not more than yours , " replied Johnson . " But I have not called my creditors yet , Mr . Johnson , " was the answer . The retort silenced the discomfited tradesman ; and the company felt that he was , as it were , commercially executed . No more was said . Glances indeed were occasionally cast to a tall young man who stood apart , with his long legs outstretched before the fire ; and at last when the arrangements were made for putting the Bankrupt ' s affairs into formal training , those glances were repeated in search of a higher sanction . The young man did little more than nod , as if it were not worth while to take much

    trouble ; and the company broke up , leaving him behind . He was a silent man , very tall and comely ; with a most self-possessed aspect , and a peculiar grave smile that looked like mockery . What part he had in the affair I did not at first understand , still less why he remained , and sat talking with the Johnsons in their own room after the rest had gone away . But they cultivated his good will with the utmost assiduity , seemed much relieved by the affability of his silent presence ; and when he went , Johnson , who had quite recovered his circulation and looked once more himself , asked me " to follow Mr . Markham , and say a few words for him . " The tall man waited for me as he was going out . Margaret , I noticed , had already gone ; so without hesitation I took leave of the family and followed my new acquaintance .

    We walked together for some little way with a very fragmentary conversation on various topics , chiefly the state of Europe at large ; in which I found my new friend to be well versed . But I observed that all the opinions carne from my side : his share of the conversation was analysis and scepticism . I suffered him to lead the way , and we stopped before a house of goodly size ; the door of which was opened by a footman . We walked through a hall well lighted and well appointed , into a room that looked like the play room of a bachelor ' s house . Cloaks and hats lay about , or hung from the walls ; a pair of foils had been left carelessly upon the table , with the gloves and one mask , the other on a chair ; single-sticks were reposing in the corner ; a handsome side-saddle lay on another table . " Notf you ' ll suppose me a married man , " said Markham , " and expect to find things in graceful order ; but that is a freak of mine . " " I do not know , " I answered , " that a side-saddle would be evidence of matrimony in a court of law . " " Married , or worse then ? But I have no women about me ; at least You will find the house without an empress . " " Do you use that yourself then ?" " Not exactly . I got it for a race to which a girl has challenged inc . But no woman can equal a man at riding—unless she sits across . r * or even then . But come up stairs . "

    I entered a handsome room , well lighted , with a magnificent fire , and a handsome array of books all round the walls . Markham did not at once follow me ; and I had time to scan a really well chosen collection of books in every language that we usually see in print West of the Red Hen ; wi i plenty about more Eastern lands . 1 was stopped in my survey by the entrance of the owner , who dashed into new topics ; this time the polity of America , which be had traversed in all directions . I soon found , mdeei > that hi . s travels bad embraced the greater part of the globe , extending

    from Cincinnati and Lima to St . Petersburg and to I long Kong . It all the more puzzled me to divine what , bad made him evidently » j chief in that council at Johnson ' s . However , be hud " taken tonic "; »» I resolved to lose no opportunity of serving Margaret ' s father . The door being opened by a servant , with a pleasant ring of gifts ** ^ plates , Markham said to me carelessly , — " You don't mind having soim--thin ^ to eat , in here—it will be warmer than the dining room . " "" 1 < lo not care , " 1 said , " what is my table , wliat my seat , ho tlm

    food be good . ' . ., Half the library table was covered by the expanded petticoat <) f ' ( ' j , ( j Tlu ! bearer of the ' tray was attended by another , a woman , who diriKjti : ^ ' ^ evolutions . This second was worth notice : tall , handsome , "'" . ' jollS certain extent , refined in bearing , self possessed , conscious of her " ^ " ^^ . r aspect , she courted , rather than avoided observation ; and told '" * " \ j that the supper was ready , with a tone , irreproachably respectful . but , i »« k ^ ^ thought , with a certain familiarity , which implied an assertion of ¦< ' ^^ me hs well as to him . Woman ' s pride never dies while her beau y ^ ^ My eyes critically followed , as she withdrew , tin : luost comp lete ai furniture in the bachelor ' s house .

    1048 The Leader. [Saturday,

    1048 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 30, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30101852/page/20/