day we opened it,--very pretty. The colours
seem to have got dirty now."

"Bright colours will become dull and dirty, Mr. Brown. It's the way
of the world. The brighter they are in their brightness, the more
dull will they look when the tinsel and gloss are gone."

"But we should have painted it again this spring, if we'd stopped
here."

"There are things, Mr. Brown, which one cannot paint again."

"Iron and wood you can, or anything of the like of that."

"Yes, Mr. Brown; you may repaint iron and wood; but who can restore
the faded colours to broken hopes and a bankrupt ambition? You see
these arches here which with so light a span bear the burden of the
house above them. So was the span of my heart on that opening day. No
weight of labour then seemed to be too much for me. The arches remain
and will remain; but as for the human heart--"

"Don't, George,--don't. It will kill me if I see you down in the
mouth."

"These will be repainted," continued Robinson, "and other breasts
will glow beneath them with hopes as high as those we felt when you
and the others stood here to welcome the public. But what artist can
ever repaint our aspirations? The soiled columns of these windows
will be regilded, and all here will be bright and young again; but
for man, when he loses his glory, there is no regilding. Come, Mr.
Brown, we will go upstairs. They will be here soon, and this is no
place now for you." Then he took him by the hand and led him tenderly
to his apartment.

There is something inexpressibly melancholy in the idea of bankruptcy
in trade;--unless, indeed, when it may have been produced by absolute
fraud, and in such a form as to allow of the bankrupts going forth
with their pockets full. But in an ordinary way, I know nothing more
sad than the fate of men who have embarked all in a trade venture and
have failed. It may be, and probably is, the fact, that in almost all
such cases the failure is the fault of the bankrupts; but the fault
is so generally hidden from their own eyes, that they cannot see the
justice of their punishment; and is often so occult in its causes
that the justice cannot be discerned by any without deep scrutiny.
They who have struggled and lost all feel only that they have worked
hard, and worked in vain; that they have thrown away their money and
their energy; and that there is an end, now and for ever, to those
sweet hopes of independence with which they embarked their small
boats upon