w much better to have a small compact business
(though it's not so small either, mind you) like my Emporium, by a large
number of properly trained watchmen defended!" And Dubois would say,--so
that it annoyed the Bull household very much indeed,--"Behold the fruits
of being a pirate and a robber. Conspuez M. Atkins! Justice for ever!
A bas les Juifs!" (he always says that now when he is angry--goodness
only knows why). Indeed Dubois got so excited that he actually thought
of breaking John's windows, though on reflection he decided that he
wouldn't do it just yet. And John was very cross with Atkins and the
shopboy, and even with Mrs. Bull and his son J. Wellington Bull, and
caused it to be generally known that he would knock Dubois's head off for
sixpence if he got the chance. Then Paddy Gilhooly, who is a tenant of
the Bulls', in Hibernia Road--and a shocking bad tenant, too, who never
pays any rent when he can help it, and keeps his premises in a
disgraceful condition, with a lot of pigs and poultry running about in
the front parlour--this Paddy must needs put his finger in the pie and
turn against his own landlord, so that whenever Mr. Atkins came along
Hibernia Road Paddy would put his head out of window and shout,
"Hooligans for iver! More power to th' inimy! Crunchy aboo!" and other
similar observations, of which no one took the least notice, because it
was the way with the Gilhooly family. Still, it was very ungrateful of
Paddy, after all John's kindness to him; besides being painful to Mr.
Atkins, who is a near cousin of the Gilhoolys and would not wish to be
disgraced by the conduct of his relations. I don't know why it is, but
somehow or other Mr. Bull has not the gift of making himself generally
popular. Time after time he has lent Paddy money; and as for Muller and
Dubois, if they want good advice on the proper conduct of their business,
they know where to come for it: but they don't seem to appreciate the
privilege. In short, if it wasn't for that little bankrupt wine merchant
Themistocles Papageorgios, whom John saved some time ago from the
consequences of litigation with a Turkish firm, I doubt if my poor friend
has one sincere wellwisher among all the townsmen.

However, I am glad to say that most of them have begun to change their
tune lately, thanks to Mr. Bull's luck being on the mend. Thomas Atkins
did not make a very good start, certainly; but as time went on he learnt
a number of new tr