of his plans, his station, and his influence. If it was something to
display before the peer claims to national respect, which, if not so
ancient, were scarcely less imposing than his own, it was more pleasing
still to dilate upon a theme to which the peer's daughter listened so
eagerly. It was, besides, a grand occasion to exhibit the vast range of
resources, the widespread influences, and far-reaching sympathies of
the great commercial man, to show him, not the mere architect of his own
fortune, but the founder of a nation's prosperity. While he thus held
forth, and in a strain to which fervor had lent a sort of eloquence, a
servant entered with another despatch.

"Oh! I trust this brings you better news," cried Lady Augusta, eagerly;
and, as he broke the envelope, he thanked her with a grateful look.

"Well?" interposed she, anxiously, as he gazed at the lines without
speaking,--"well?"

"Just as I said," muttered Dunn, in a deep and suppressed voice,--"a
systematic plot, a deep-laid scheme against me."

"Is it still about the Bank?" asked the Earl, whose interest had been
excited by the tenor of the recent conversation.

"Yes, my Lord; they insist on making me out a bubble speculator, an
adventurer, a Heaven knows what of duplicity and intrigue. I would
simply ask them: 'Is the wealth with which this same Davenport Dunn has
enriched you real, solid, and tangible; are the guineas mint-stamped;
are the shares true representatives of value?' But why do I talk of
these people? If they render me no gratitude, they owe me none,--my
aims were higher and greater than ever _they_ or _their_ interests
comprehended." From the haughty defiance of his tone, his voice fell
suddenly to a low and quick key, as he said: "This message informs me
that the demand upon the Ossory to-morrow will be a great concerted
movement. Barnard, the man I myself returned last election for the
borough, is to head it; he has canvassed the county for holders of
our notes, and such is the panic that the magistrates have sent for an
increased force of police and two additional companies of infantry. My
man of business asks, 'What is to be done?'"

"And what _is_ to be done?" asked the Earl.

"Meet it, my Lord. Meet the demand as our duty requires us."

There was a calm dignity in the manner Dunn spoke the words that had its
full effect upon the Earl and his daughter. They saw this "man of the
people" display, in a moment of immense peril, an am