March, "upon
the continuance of our friendship than upon anything else in the
world, because I have so many reasons to know you, and I am sure I
know myself. _There will be no bankruptcy without we are bankrupt
together._"

Here are the waters flowing on a level, flowing between two men of
the world; one of them great enough to give, without deeming himself
a benefactor, and the other good enough to receive a gift well.

The Condescension of Borrowers

"Il n'est si riche qui quelquefois ne doibve. Il n'est si pauvre de
qui quelquefois on ne puisse emprunter."--_Pantagruel_.

"I lent my umbrella," said my friend, "to my cousin, Maria. I was
compelled to lend it to her because she could not, or would not, leave
my house in the rain without it. I had need of that umbrella, and
I tried to make it as plain as the amenities of language permitted
that I expected to have it returned. Maria said superciliously that
she hated to see other people's umbrellas littering the house, which
gave me a gleam of hope. Two months later I found my property in the
hands of her ten-year-old son, who was being marshalled with his
brothers and sisters to dancing-school. In the first joyful flash
of recognition I cried, 'Oswald, that is my umbrella you are
carrying!' whereupon Maria said still more superciliously than
before, 'Oh, yes, don't you remember?' (as if reproaching me for my
forgetfulness)--'you gave it to me that Saturday I lunched with you,
and it rained so heavily. The boys carry it to school. Where there
are children, you can't have too many old umbrellas at hand. They
lose them so fast.' She spoke," continued my friend impressively,
"as if she were harbouring my umbrella from pure kindness, and
because she did not like to wound my feelings by sending it back to
me. She made a virtue of giving it shelter."

This is the arrogance which places the borrower, as Charles Lamb
discovered long ago, among the great ones of the earth, among those
whom their brethren serve. Lamb loved to contrast the "instinctive
sovereignty," the frank and open bearing of the man who borrows with
the "lean and suspicious" aspect of the man who lends. He stood lost
in admiration before the great borrowers of the world,--Alcibiades,
Falstaff, Steele, and Sheridan; an incomparable quartette, to which
might be added the shining names of William Godwin and Leigh Hunt.
All the characteristic qualities of the class were united, indeed,
in Leigh Hunt