第4章

TELLS HOW THE DIAMOND IS BROUGHT UP TO LONDON, AND PRODUCES WONDERFUL EFFECTS BOTH IN THE CITYAND AT THE WEST END

The circumstances recorded in this story took place some score of years ago, when, as the reader may remember, there was a great mania in the City of London for establishing companies of all sorts; by which many people made pretty fortunes.

I was at this period, as the truth must be known, thirteenth clerk of twenty-four young gents who did the immense business of the Independent West Diddlesex Fire and Life Insurance Company, at their splendid stone mansion in Cornhill.Mamma had sunk a sum of four hundred pounds in the purchase of an annuity at this office, which paid her no less than six-and-thirty pounds a year, when no other company in London would give her more than twenty-four.The chairman of the directors was the great Mr.Brough, of the house of Brough and Hoff, Crutched Friars, Turkey Merchants.It was a new house, but did a tremendous business in the fig and sponge way, and more in the Zante currant line than any other firm in the City.

Brough was a great man among the Dissenting connection, and you saw his name for hundreds at the head of every charitable society patronised by those good people.He had nine clerks residing at his office in Crutched Friars; he would not take one without a certificate from the schoolmaster and clergyman of his native place, strongly vouching for his morals and doctrine; and the places were so run after, that he got a premium of four or five hundred pounds with each young gent, whom he made to slave for ten hours a day, and to whom in compensation he taught all the mysteries of the Turkish business.He was a great man on 'Change, too; and our young chaps used to hear from the stockbrokers' clerks (we commonly dined together at the "Cock and Woolpack," a respectable house, where you get a capital cut of meat, bread, vegetables, cheese, half a pint of porter, and a penny to the waiter, for a shilling)--the youngstockbrokers used to tell us of immense bargains in Spanish, Greek, and Columbians, that Brough made.Hoff had nothing to do with them, but stopped at home minding exclusively the business of the house.He was a young chap, very quiet and steady, of the Quaker persuasion, and had been taken into partnership by Brough for a matter of thirty thousand pounds: and a very good bargain too.I was told in the strictest confidence that the house one year with another divided a good seven thousand pounds: of which Brough had half, Hoff two-sixths, and the other sixth went to old Tudlow, who had been Mr.Brough's clerk before the new partnership began.Tudlow always went about very shabby, and we thought him an old miser.One of our gents, Bob Swinney by name, used to say that Tudlow's share was all nonsense, and that Brough had it all; but Bob was always too knowing by half, used to wear a green cutaway coat, and had his free admission to Covent Garden Theatre.He was always talking down at the shop, as we called it (it wasn't a shop, but as splendid an office as any in Cornhill)--he was always talking about Vestris and Miss Tree, and singing"The bramble, the bramble, The jolly jolly bramble!"one of Charles Kemble's famous songs in "Maid Marian;" a play that was all the rage then, taken from a famous story-book by one Peacock, a clerk in the India House; and a precious good place he has too.

When Brough heard how Master Swinney abused him, and had his admission to the theatre, he came one day down to the office where we all were, four-and-twenty of us, and made one of the most beautiful speeches I ever heard in my life.He said that for slander he did not care, contumely was the lot of every public man who had austere principles of his own, and acted by them austerely; but what he DID care for was the character of every single gentleman forming a part of the Independent West Diddlesex Association.The welfare of thousands was in their keeping; millions of money were daily passing through their hands; the City- -the country looked upon them for order, honesty, and good example.And if he found amongst those whom he considered as his children-- those whom he loved as his own flesh and blood--that that order was departed from, that that regularity was not maintained, that that good example wasnot kept up (Mr.B.always spoke in this emphatic way)--if he found his children departing from the wholesome rules of morality, religion, and decorum--if he found in high or low--in the head clerk at six hundred a year down to the porter who cleaned the steps--if he found the slightest taint of dissipation, he would cast the offender from him--yea, though he were his own son, he would cast him from him!

As he spoke this, Mr.Brough burst into tears; and we who didn't know what was coming, looked at each other as pale as parsnips: all except Swinney, who was twelfth clerk, and made believe to whistle.When Mr.

B.had wiped his eyes and recovered himself, he turned round; and oh, how my heart thumped as he looked me full in the face! How it was relieved, though, when he shouted out in a thundering voice -"MR.ROBERT SWINNEY!"

"Sir to you," says Swinney, as cool as possible, and some of the chaps began to titter.