rolling influence over their operations.
The two other men had recently gone into speculations, of the extent of
which he had not been fully aware, and he found the liabilities of
the firm very much greater than he had expected. He said this without
bitterness, and said it not to the world, but only to a friend. I am
exceedingly sorry for him; it is such a changed life that he must
lead hereafter, and with none of the objects before him which he might
heretofore have hoped to grasp. No doubt he was ambitious of civic, and
even of broader public distinction; and not unreasonably so, having the
gift of ready and impressive speech, and a behavior among men that
wins them, and a tact in the management of affairs, and many-sided
and never-tiring activity. To be a member of Parliament--to be lord
mayor--whatever an eminent merchant of the world's metropolis may
be--beyond question he had dreamed wide-awake of these things. And now
fate itself could hardly accomplish them, if ever so favorably inclined.
He has to begin life over again, as he began it twenty-five years ago,
only under infinite disadvantages, and with so much of his working-day
gone forever.

"At parting, I spoke of his going to America; but he appeared to think
that there would be little hope for him there. Indeed, I should be loath
to see him transplanted thither myself, away from the warm, cheerful,
juicy English life into our drier and less genial sphere; he is a good
guest among us, but might not do well to live with us."

Bennoch was never lord mayor or member of Parliament; I do not know
that he cared to be either; but he lived to repay all his creditors with
interest, and to become once more a man in easy circumstances, honored
and trusted as well as loved by all who knew him, and active and happy
in all good works to the end of his days. There could be no keeping down
such a man, even in England; and when I knew him, in after years, he was
the Bennoch of yore, grown mellow and wise.

We were now ready for the Continent, when symptoms of some malady began
to manifest themselves among the younger persons of the family, which
presently culminated in an attack of the measles. It was six weeks
before we were in condition to take the road again. Meanwhile we were
professionally attended by Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson, a homoeopathist, a
friend of Emerson and of Henry James the elder, a student of Swedenborg,
and, at this particular juncture, interested in spi