a, yet still, the very
moment you cross the precincts of their dwelling, you must put your
care where your cash ought to be--in your pocket. You must wear the easy
smile of a happy conscience, and talk of your want of a few hundreds
as though it were a question of a pinch of snuff, or a glass of
brandy-and-water, while you agree to the exorbitant demands they exact,
with the careless indifference of one to whom money is no object, rather
than with the despair of a wretch who looks for no benefit in life save
in the act for insolvent debtors. This you 'll say is a great bore, and
so I once thought too; now, however, I have got somewhat used to it, and
sometimes don't actually dislike the fun. Why, man, I have been at it
for three months at a time. I remember when I never blew my nose without
pulling out a writ along with my pocket-handkerchief, and I never was in
better spirits in all my life. But here we are. This is Bill Fagan's,
a well-known drysalter; you'll have to wait for me in the front parlour
for a moment while I negotiate with Billy.'

Elbowing our way through a squalid and miserable-looking throng of
people that filled the narrow hall of a house in fleet Street, we forced
on till we reached an inner door in which a sliding panel permitted
those within to communicate with others on the outside. Tapping at this
with his cane, O'Grady called out something which I could not catch, the
panel at once flew back, a red carbuncled face appeared at the
opening, the owner of which, with a grin of very peculiar signification,
exclaimed--' Ah, it's yourself, Captain? Walk in, sir.' With these words
the door was opened, and we were admitted into the inner hall. This was
also crowded, but with a different class from what I had seen without.
These were apparently men in business, shopkeepers and traders, who,
reduced by some momentary pressure, to effect a loan, were content
to prop up their tottering credit by sapping the very core of their
prosperity. Unlike the others, on whom habitual poverty and daily misery
had stamped its heavy impress, and whose faces too, inured to suffering,
betrayed no shame at being seen--these, on the contrary, looked downward
or aside; seemed impatient, fretful, and peevish, and indicated in
a hundred ways how unused they were to exigencies of this nature,
muttering to themselves in angry mood at being detained, and feigning a
resolution to depart at every moment. O'Grady, after a conference of