t in at
the back while you are selling them over the counter."

"Can they?" said Mr. Brown: "perhaps they can. But nevertheless,
George, I think I'll buy a few. It'll be an ease to my mind."

He did so; but it was a suicidal act on his part. One thing was quite
clear, even to Mr. Jones. If the firm commenced business to the
extent which they contemplated, it was out of the question that
they should do everything on the ready-money principle. That such a
principle is antiquated, absurd, and uncommercial; that it is opposed
to the whole system of trade as now adopted in this metropolis,
has been clearly shown in the preface to these memoirs. But in
this instance, in the case of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, the
doing so was as impracticable as it would have been foolish, if
practicable. Credit and credit only was required. But of all modes of
extinguishing credit, of crushing, as it were, the young baby in its
cradle, there is none equal to that of spending a little ready money,
and then halting. In trade as in love, to doubt,--or rather, to seem
to doubt,--is to be lost. When you order goods, do so as though the
bank were at your back. Look your victim full in the face, and write
down your long numbers without a falter in your pen. And should there
seem a hesitation on his part, do not affect to understand it. When
the articles are secured, you give your bill at six months' date;
then your credit at your bankers,--your discount system,--commences.
That is another affair. When once your bank begins that with
you,--and the banks must do so, or they may put up their
shutters,--when once your bank has commenced, it must carry on the
game. You are floated then, placed well in the centre of the full
stream of commerce, and it must be your own fault if you do not
either retire with half a million, or become bankrupt with an eclat,
which is worth more than any capital in refitting you for a further
attempt. In the meantime it need hardly be said that you yourself are
living on the very fat of the land.

But birds of a feather should flock together, and Mr. Brown and Mr.
Robinson were not exactly of the same plumage.

It was finally arranged that Mr. Robinson should have carte blanche
at his own particular line of business, to the extent of fifteen
hundred pounds, and that Mr. Brown should go into the warehouse and
lay out a similar sum in goods. Both Jones and Mrs. Jones accompanied
the old man, and a sore time he had of it.