scorn that will eat into one's vitals
for ever? Mr. Sowerby was now fifty; he had enjoyed his chances in
life; and as he walked back, up South Audley Street, he could not
but think of the uses he had made of them. He had fallen into the
possession of a fine property on the attainment of his manhood;
he had been endowed with more than average gifts of intellect;
never-failing health had been given to him, and a vision fairly clear
in discerning good from evil; and now to what a pass had he brought
himself! And that man Fothergill had put all this before him in so
terribly clear a light! Now that the day for his final demolishment
had arrived, the necessity that he should be demolished--finished
away at once, out of sight and out of mind--had not been softened,
or, as it were, half hidden, by any ambiguous phrase. "You have had
your cake, and eaten it--eaten it greedily. Is not that sufficient
for you? Would you eat your cake twice? Would you have a succession
of cakes? No, my friend; there is no succession of these cakes for
those who eat them greedily. Your proposition is not a fair one,
and we who have the whip-hand of you will not listen to it. Be good
enough to vanish. Permit yourself to be swept quietly into the
dunghill. All that there was about you of value has departed from
you; and allow me to say that you are now--rubbish." And then the
ruthless besom comes with irresistible rush, and the rubbish is swept
into the pit, there to be hidden for ever from the sight. And the
pity of it is this--that a man, if he will only restrain his greed,
may eat his cake and yet have it; aye, and in so doing will have
twice more the flavour of the cake than he who with gormandizing maw
will devour his dainty all at once. Cakes in this world will grow by
being fed on, if only the feeder be not too insatiate. On all which
wisdom Mr. Sowerby pondered with sad heart and very melancholy mind
as he walked away from the premises of Messrs. Gumption & Gazebee.
His intention had been to go down to the House after leaving Mr.
Fothergill, but the prospect of immediate ruin had been too much for
him, and he knew that he was not fit to be seen at once among the
haunts of men. And he had intended also to go down to Barchester
early on the following morning--only for a few hours, that he might
make further arrangements respecting that bill which Robarts had
accepted for him. That bill--the second one--had now become due, and
Mr. Tozer had been