nder which he had made over all his possessions to his wife, should
she have survived him,--Mr. Gazebee expressed a mild opinion that he
was wrong in his law, and blandly recommended an amicable lawsuit.
The amicable lawsuit was carried on. His own lawyer seemed to
throw him over. Mr. Gazebee was successful in everything. No money
came to him. Money was demanded from him on old scores and on new
scores,--and all that he received to console him for what he had lost
was a mourning ring with his wife's hair,--for which, with sundry
other mourning rings, he had to pay,--and an introduction to Mr. Dobbs
Broughton. To Mr. Dobbs Broughton he owed five hundred pounds; and as
regarded a bill for the one-half of that sum which was due to-morrow,
Mr. Dobbs Broughton had refused to grant him renewal for a single
month!

I know no more uncomfortable walking than that which falls to the lot
of men who go into the City to look for money, and who find none. Of
all the lost steps trodden by men, surely the steps lost after that
fashion are the most melancholy. It is not only that they are so
vain, but that they are accompanied by so killing a sense of shame!
To wait about in dingy rooms, which look on to bare walls, and are
approached through some Hook Court; or to keep appointments at a low
coffee-house, to which trystings the money-lender will not trouble
himself to come unless it pleases him; to be civil, almost suppliant,
to a cunning knave whom the borrower loathes; to be refused thrice,
and then cheated with his eyes open on the fourth attempt; to submit
himself to vulgarity of the foulest kind, and to have to seem to like
it; to be badgered, reviled, and at last accused of want of honesty
by the most fraudulent of mankind; and at the same time to be clearly
conscious of the ruin that is coming,--this is the fate of him who
goes into the City to find money, not knowing where it is to be
found!

Crosbie went along the lane into Lombard Street, and then he stood
still for a moment to think. Though he knew a good deal of affairs in
general, he did not quite know what would happen to him if his bill
should be dishonoured. That somebody would bring it to him noted,
and require him instantly to put his hand into his pocket and bring
out the amount of the bill, plus the amount of certain expenses, he
thought that he did know. And he knew that were he in trade he would
become a bankrupt; and he was well aware that such an occurrence
wo