m I to do with him?" she again said, when she returned. "When
he is able to move, and the house is taken away from us, what am I to
do with him? He's been bad to me, but I won't leave him."

"Neither will I leave him, Maryanne."

"That's nonsense. You've got nothing, no more than he has; and he's
not your flesh and blood. Where would you have been now, if we'd been
married on that day."

"I should have been nearer to him in blood, but not truer to him as a
partner."

"It's lucky for you that your sort of partnership needn't last for
ever. You've got your hands and your brain, and at any rate you can
work. But who can say what must become of us? Looking at it all
through, George, I have been treated hard;--haven't I, now?"

He could only say that of such hard treatment none of it rested on
his conscience. At such a moment as this he could not explain to
her that had she herself been more willing to trust in others, more
prone to believe in Providence, less hard and worldly, things would
have been better with her. Even now, could she have relaxed into
tenderness for half-an-hour, there was one at her elbow who would
have taken her at once, with all that burden of a worn-out pauper
parent, and have poured into her lap all the earnings of his life.
But Maryanne Brown could not relax into tenderness, nor would she
ever deign to pretend that she could do so.

The first day on which Mr. Brown was able to come out into the
sitting-room was the very day on which Brown, Jones, and Robinson
were declared bankrupts. Craddock and Giles, the stationers of St.
Mary Axe, held bills of theirs, as to which they would not,--or
probably could not,--wait; and the City and West End Commercial and
Agricultural Joint-Stock Bank refused to make any further advances.
It was a sad day; but one, at least, of the partners felt relieved
when the blow had absolutely fallen, and the management of the
affairs of the shop was taken out of the hands of the firm.

"And will we be took to prison?" asked Mr. Brown. They were almost
the first articulate words which he had been heard to utter since the
fit had fallen on him; and Robinson was quick to assure him that no
such misfortune would befall him.

"They are not at all bitter against us," said Robinson. "They know we
have done our best."

"And what will they do with us?" again asked Mr. Brown.

"We shall have a sale, and clear out everything, and pay a
dividend;--and then the world will be o