FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>  
g in the dearest market: he was reputed as _keen_ in business. But he was also kind-hearted and high-principled, and it is this union of remarkable qualities which gives his memoirs their best value. Mr Budgett was a general provision-merchant at Bristol, with also a large warehouse at Kingswood Hill, where his private residence was. His biographer presents him as he came daily into town to attend to business. 'You might have often seen driving into Bristol, a man under the middle size, verging towards sixty, wrapped up in a coat of deep olive, with gray hair, an open countenance, a quick brown eye, and an air less expressive of polish than of push. He drives a phaeton, with a first-rate horse, at full speed. He looks as if he had work to do, and had the art of doing it. On the way, he overtakes a woman carrying a bundle. In an instant, the horse is reined up by her side, and a voice of contagious promptitude tells her to put up her bundle and mount. The voice communicates to the astonished pedestrian its own energy. She is forthwith seated, and away dashes the phaeton. In a few minutes, the stranger is deposited in Bristol, with the present of some pretty little book, and the phaeton hastes on to Nelson Street. There it turns into the archway of an immense warehouse. "Here, boy; take my horse, take my horse!" It is the voice of the head of the firm. The boy flies. The master passes through the offices as if he had three days' work to do. Yet his eye notes everything. He reaches his private office. He takes from his pocket a memorandum-book, on which he has set down, in order, the duties of the day. A boy waits at the door. He glances at his book, and orders the boy to call a clerk. The clerk is there promptly, and receives his instructions in a moment. "Now, what is the next thing?" asks the master, glancing at his memorandum. Again the boy is on the wing, and another clerk appears. He is soon dismissed. "Now, what is the next thing?" again looking at the memorandum. At the call of the messenger, a young man now approaches the office door. He is a "traveller;" but notwithstanding the habitual push and self-possession of his class, he evidently is approaching his employer with reluctance and embarrassment. He almost pauses at the entrance. And now that he is face to face with the strict man of business, he feels much confused. "Well, what's the matter? I understand you can't make your cash quite right." "No, sir."
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>  



Top keywords:

memorandum

 

Bristol

 
phaeton
 

business

 

bundle

 

office

 

private

 

warehouse

 

master

 

glances


Street
 

Nelson

 

passes

 

orders

 

pocket

 

archway

 

reaches

 

duties

 

offices

 

immense


strict

 

confused

 

embarrassment

 

reluctance

 

pauses

 

entrance

 

matter

 

understand

 

employer

 
approaching

appears

 
dismissed
 

instructions

 

receives

 

moment

 

hastes

 

glancing

 

habitual

 

possession

 

evidently


notwithstanding

 

messenger

 

approaches

 

traveller

 

promptly

 

forthwith

 

attend

 
reputed
 

presents

 

driving