mine has a sick wife and nine young children: he is himself a sick
man, and his tenure of life is feeble; he has earned money, sir, in
my service--sixty pounds and more--it is all his children have to
look to--all: but for that, in the event of his death, they would
be houseless beggars in the street. And what have I done for that
family, sir? I have put that money out of the reach of Robert
Gates, and placed it so that it shall be a blessing to his family
at his death. Every farthing is invested in shares in this office;
and Robert Gates, my lodge-porter, is a holder of three shares in
the West Diddlesex Association, and, in that capacity, your master
and mine. Do you think I want to CHEAT Gates?"
"Oh, sir!" says I.
"To cheat that poor helpless man, and those tender innocent
children!--you can't think so, sir; I should be a disgrace to human
nature if I did. But what boots all my energy and perseverance?
What though I place my friends' money, my family's money, my own
money--my hopes, wishes, desires, ambitions--all upon this
enterprise? You young men will not do so. You, whom I treat with
love and confidence as my children, make no return to me. When I
toil, you remain still; when I struggle, you look on. Say the word
at once,--you doubt me! O heavens, that this should be the reward
of all my care and love for you!"
Here Mr. Brough was so affected that he actually burst into tears,
and I confess I saw in its true light the negligence of which I had
been guilty.
"Sir," says I, "I am very--very sorry: it was a matter of
delicacy, rather than otherwise, which induced me not to speak to
my aunt about the West Diddlesex."
"Delicacy, my dear dear boy--as if there can be any delicacy about
making your aunt's fortune! Say indifference to me, say
ingratitude, say folly,--but don't say delicacy--no, no, not
delicacy. Be honest, my boy, and call things by their right names-
-always do."
"It WAS folly and ingratitude, Mr. Brough," says I: "I see it all
now; and I'll write to my aunt this very post."
"You had better do no such thing," says Brough, bitterly: "the
stocks are at ninety, and Mrs. Hoggarty can get three per cent. for
her money."
"I WILL write, sir,--upon my word and honour, I will write."
"Well, as your honour is passed, you must, I suppose; for never
break your word--no, not in a trifle, Titmarsh. Send me up the
letter when you have done, and I'll frank it--upon my word and
honour I will," says Mr. Brough, laughing, and holding out his hand
to me.
I took it, and he pressed mine very kindly--"You may as well sit
down here," says he, as he kept hold of it; "there is plenty of
paper."
And so I sat down and mended a beautiful pen, and began and wrote,
"Independent West Diddlesex Association, June 1822," and "My dear
Aunt," in the best manner possible. Then I paused a little,
thinking what I should next say; for I have always found that
difficulty about letters. The date and My dear So-and-so one
writes off immediately--it is the next part which is hard; and I
put my pen in my mouth, flung myself back in my chair, and began to
think about it.
"Bah!" said Brough, "are you going to be about this letter all day,
my good fellow? Listen to me, and I'll dictate to you in a
moment." So he began:-
"My Dear Aunt,--Since my return from Somersetshire, I am very happy
indeed to tell you that I have so pleased the managing director of
our Association and the Board, that they have been good enough to
appoint me third clerk--"
"Sir!" says I.
"Write what I say. Mr. Roundhand, as has been agreed by the board
yesterday, quits the clerk's desk and takes the title of secretary
and actuary. Mr. Highmore takes his place; Mr. Abednego follows
him; and I place you as third clerk--as
"third clerk (write), with a salary of a hundred and fifty pounds
per annum. This news will, I know, gratify my dear mother and you,
who have been a second mother to me all my life.
"When I was last at home, I remember you consulted me as to the
best mode of laying out a sum of money which was lying useless in
your banker's hands. I have since lost no opportunity of gaining
what information I could: and situated here as I am, in the very
midst of affairs, I believe, although very young, I am as good a
person to apply to as many others of greater age and standing.
"I frequently thought of mentioning to you our Association, but
feelings of delicacy prevented me from doing so. I did not wish
that anyone should suppose that a shadow of self-interest could
move me in any way.
"But I believe, without any sort of doubt, that the West Diddlesex
Association offers the best security that you can expect for your
capital, and, at the same time, the highest interest you can
anywhere procure.
"The situation of the Company, as I have it from THE VERY BEST
AUTHORITY (underline that), is as follows:-
"The subscribed and bona fide capital is FIVE MILLIONS STERLING.
"The body of directors you know. Suffice it to say that the
managing director is John Brough, Esq., of the firm of Brough and
Hoff, a Member of Parliament, and a man as well known as Mr.
Rothschild in the City of London. His private fortune, I know for
a fact, amounts to half a million; and the last dividends paid to
the shareholders of the I. W. D. Association amounted to 6.125 per
cent. per annum."
[That I know was the dividend declared by us.]
"Although the shares in the market are at a very great premium, it
is the privilege of the four first clerks to dispose of a certain
number, 5,000L. each at par; and if you, my dearest aunt, would
wish for 2,500L. worth, I hope you will allow me to oblige you by
offering you so much of my new privileges.
"Let me hear from you immediately upon the subject, as I have
already an offer for the whole amount of my shares at market
price."
"But I haven't, sir," says I.
"You have, sir. I will take the shares; but I want YOU. I want as
many respectable persons in the Company as I can bring. I want you
because I like you, and I don't mind telling you that I have views
of my own as well; for I am an honest man and say openly what I
mean, and I'll tell you WHY I want you. I can't, by the
regulations of the Company, have more than a certain number of
votes, but if your aunt takes shares, I expect--I don't mind owning
it--that she will vote with me. NOW do you understand me? My
object is to be all in all with the Company; and if I be, I will
make it the most glorious enterprise that ever was conducted in the
City of London."
So I signed the letter and left it with Mr. B. to frank.
The next day I went and took my place at the third clerk's desk,
being led to it by Mr. B., who made a speech to the gents, much to
the annoyance of the other chaps, who grumbled about their
/>
services: though, as for the matter of that, our services were
very much alike: the Company was only three years old, and the
oldest clerk in it had not six months' more standing in it than I.
"Look out," said that envious M'Whirter to me. "Have you got
money, or have any of your relations money? or are any of them
going to put it into the concern?"
I did not think fit to answer him, but took a pinch out of his
mull, and was always kind to him; and he, to say the truth, was
always most civil to me. As for Gus Hoskins, he began to think I
was a superior being; and I must say that the rest of the chaps
behaved very kindly in the matter, and said that if one man were to
be put over their heads before another, they would have pitched
upon me, for I had never harmed any of them, and done little
kindnesses to several.
"I know," says Abednego, "how you got the place. It was I who got
it you. I told Brough you were a cousin of Preston's, the Lord of
the Treasury, had venison from him and all that; and depend upon it
he expects that you will be able to do him some good in that
quarter."
I think there was some likelihood in what Abednego said, because
our governor, as we called him, frequently spoke to me about my
cousin; told me to push the concern in the West End of the town,
get as many noblemen as we could to insure with us, and so on. It
was in vain I said I could do nothing with Mr. Preston. "Bah!
bah!" says Mr. Brough, "don't tell ME. People don't send haunches
of venison to you for nothing;" and I'm convinced he thought I was
a very cautious prudent fellow, for not bragging about my great
family, and keeping my connection with them a secret. To be sure
he might have learned the truth from Gus, who lived with me; but
Gus would insist that I was hand in glove with all the nobility,
and boasted about me ten times as much as I did myself.
The chaps used to call me the "West Ender."
"See," thought I, "what I have gained by Aunt Hoggarty giving me a
diamond-pin! What a lucky thing it is that she did not give me the
money, as I hoped she would! Had I not had the pin--had I even
taken it to any other person but Mr. Polonius, Lady Drum would
never have noticed me; had Lady Drum never noticed me, Mr. Brough
never would, and I never should have been third clerk of the West
Diddlesex."
I took heart at all this, and wrote off on the very evening of my
appointment to my dearest Mary Smith, giving her warning that a
"certain event," for which one of us was longing very earnestly,
might come off sooner than we had expected. And why not? Miss
S.'s own fortune was 70L. a year, mine was 150L., and when we had
300L., we always vowed we would marry. "Ah!" thought I, "if I
could but go to Somersetshire now, I might boldly walk up to old
Smith's door" (he was her grandfather, and a half-pay lieutenant of
the navy), "I might knock at the knocker and see my beloved Mary in
the parlour, and not be obliged to sneak behind hayricks on the
look-out for her, or pelt stones at midnight at her window."
My aunt, in a few days, wrote a pretty gracious reply to my letter.
She had not determined, she said, as to the manner in which she
should employ her three thousand pounds, but should take my offer
into consideration; begging me to keep my shares open for a little
while, until her mind was made up.
What, then, does Mr. Brough do? I learned afterwards, in the year
1830, when he and the West Diddlesex Association had disappeared
altogether, how he had proceeded.
"Who are the attorneys at Slopperton?" says he to me in a careless
way.
"Mr. Ruck, sir," says I, "is the Tory solicitor, and Messrs. Hodge
and Smithers the Liberals." I knew them very well, for the fact
is, before Mary Smith came to live in our parts, I was rather
partial to Miss Hodge, and her great gold-coloured ringlets; but
Mary came and soon put HER nose out of joint, as the saying is.
"And you are of what politics?"
"Why, sir, we are Liberals." I was rather ashamed of this, for Mr.
Brough was an out-and-out Tory; but Hodge and Smithers is a most
respectable firm. I brought up a packet from them to Hickson,
Dixon, Paxton, and Jackson, OUR solicitors, who are their London
correspondents.
Mr. Brough only said, "Oh, indeed!" and did not talk any further on
the subject, but began admiring my diamond-pin very much.
"Titmarsh, my dear boy," says he, "I have a young lady at Fulham
who is worth seeing, I assure you, and who has heard so much about
you from her father (for I like you, my boy, I don't care to own
it), that she is rather anxious to see you too. Suppose you come
down to us for a week? Abednego will do your work."
"Law, sir! you are very kind," says I.
"Well, you shall come down; and I hope you will like my claret.
But hark ye! I don't think, my dear fellow, you are quite smart
enough--quite well enough dressed. Do you understand me?"
"I've my blue coat and brass buttons at home, sir."
"What! that thing with the waist between your shoulders that you
wore at Mrs. Brough's party?" (It WAS rather high-waisted, being
made in the country two years before.) "No--no, that will never
do. Get some new clothes, sir,--two new suits of clothes."
"Sir!" says I, "I'm already, if the truth must be told, very short
of money for this quarter, and can't afford myself a new suit for a
long time to come."
"Pooh, pooh! don't let that annoy you. Here's a ten-pound note--
but no, on second thoughts, you may as well go to my tailor's.
I'll drive you down there: and never mind the bill, my good lad!"
And drive me down he actually did, in his grand coach-and-four, to
Mr. Von Stiltz, in Clifford Street, who took my measure, and sent
me home two of the finest coats ever seen, a dress-coat and a
frock, a velvet waist-coat, a silk ditto, and three pairs of
pantaloons, of the most beautiful make. Brough told me to get some
boots and pumps, and silk stockings for evenings; so that when the
time came for me to go down to Fulham, I appeared as handsome as
any young nobleman, and Gus said that "I looked, by Jingo, like a
regular tip-top swell."
In the meantime the following letter had been sent down to Hodge
and Smithers:-
"RAM ALLEY, CORNHILL, LONDON: July 1822.
"DEAR SIRS,
* * *
[This part being on private affairs relative to the cases of Dixon
v. Haggerstony, Snodgrass v. Rubbidge and another, I am not
permitted to extract.]
* * *
"Likewise we beg to hand you a few more prospectuses of the
Independent West Diddlesex Fire and Life Insurance Company, of
which we have the honour to be the solicitors in London. We wrote
to you last year, requesting you to accept the Slopperton and
Somerset agency for the same, and have been expecting for some time
back that either shares or assurances should be effected by you.
&nbs
p; "The capital of the Company, as you know, is five millions sterling
(say 5,000,000L.), and we are in a situation to offer more than the
usual commission to our agents of the legal profession. We shall
be happy to give a premium of 6 per cent. for shares to the amount
of 1,000L., 6.5 per cent. above a thousand, to be paid immediately
upon the taking of the shares.
"I am, dear Sirs, for self and partners,
"Yours most faithfully,
"SAMUEL JACKSON."
This letter, as I have said, came into my hands some time
afterwards. I knew nothing of it in the year 1822, when, in my new
suit of clothes, I went down to pass a week at the Rookery, Fulham,
residence of John Brough, Esquire, M.P.
CHAPTER VII
HOW SAMUEL TITMARSH REACHED THE HIGHEST POINT OF PROSPERITY
If I had the pen of a George Robins, I might describe the Rookery
properly: suffice it, however, to say it is a very handsome
country place; with handsome lawns sloping down to the river,
handsome shrubberies and conservatories, fine stables, outhouses,
kitchen-gardens, and everything belonging to a first-rate rus in
urbe, as the great auctioneer called it when he hammered it down
some years after.
I arrived on a Saturday at half-an-hour before dinner: a grave
gentleman out of livery showed me to my room; a man in a chocolate
coat and gold lace, with Brough's crest on the buttons, brought me
a silver shaving-pot of hot water on a silver tray; and a grand
dinner was ready at six, at which I had the honour of appearing in
Von Stiltz's dress-coat and my new silk stockings and pumps.
Brough took me by the hand as I came in, and presented me to his
lady, a stout fair-haired woman, in light blue satin; then to his
daughter, a tall, thin, dark-eyed girl, with beetle-brows, looking
very ill-natured, and about eighteen.
"Belinda my love," said her papa, "this young gentleman is one of
my clerks, who was at our ball."
"Oh, indeed!" says Belinda, tossing up her head.
"But not a common clerk, Miss Belinda,--so, if you please, we will
have none of your aristocratic airs with him. He is a nephew of
the Countess of Drum; and I hope he will soon be very high in our
establishment, and in the city of London."
At the name of Countess (I had a dozen times rectified the error
about our relationship), Miss Belinda made a low curtsey, and
stared at me very hard, and said she would try and make the Rookery
pleasant to any friend of Papa's. "We have not much MONDE to-day,"
continued Miss Brough, "and are only in petit comite; but I hope
before you leave us you will see some societe that will make your
sejour agreeable."
I saw at once that she was a fashionable girl, from her using the
French language in this way.
"Isn't she a fine girl?" said Brough, whispering to me, and
evidently as proud of her as a man could be. "Isn't she a fine
girl--eh, you dog? Do you see breeding like that in
Somersetshire?"
"No, sir, upon my word!" answered I, rather slily; for I was
thinking all the while how "Somebody" was a thousand times more
beautiful, simple, and ladylike.
"And what has my dearest love been doing all day?" said her papa.
"Oh, Pa! I have PINCED the harp a little to Captain Fizgig's
flute. Didn't I, Captain Fizgig?"
Captain the Honourable Francis Fizgig said, "Yes, Brough, your fair
daughter PINCED the harp, and TOUCHED the piano, and EGRATIGNED the
guitar, and ECORCHED a song or two; and we had the pleasure of a
PROMENADE A L'EAU,--of a walk upon the water."
"Law, Captain!" cries Mrs. Brough, "walk on the water?"
"Hush, Mamma, you don't understand French!" says Miss Belinda, with
a sneer.
"It's a sad disadvantage, madam," says Fizgig, gravely; "and I
recommend you and Brough here, who are coming out in the great