But he did not make his permanent escape from Liverpool so
easily. Not many months had passed before Peter fell ill, had to leave
Liverpool, and Irving was left in charge. For over eight months the
entire management of an ill-ordered establishment fell into his hands.
He seems to have made a thorough attempt to examine and arrange the
confusions of the office. He studied bookkeeping, so that he might get
some knowledge of the accounts, and otherwise busied himself in a
methodical way foreign to his habit. At last, in 1818, the best thing
possible under the circumstances happened,--the business collapsed,
and the brothers found a road out of their difficulties by way of the
bankruptcy court. It was a great relief. "For upwards of two years,"
he wrote to Brevoort, "I have been bowed down in spirit, and harassed
by the most sordid cares. As yet, I trust, my mind has not lost its
elasticity, and I hope to recover some cheerful standing in the world.
Indeed, I feel very little solicitude about my own prospects. I trust
something will turn up to procure me subsistence, and am convinced,
however scanty and precarious may be my lot, I can bring myself to be
content. But I feel harassed in mind at times on behalf of my
brothers. It is a dismal thing to look round on the wrecks of such a
family connection. This is what, in spite of every exertion, will
sometimes steep my soul in bitterness."

Irving had now fairly arrived at maturity. The experience of the last
few years had done much to sober him. He was still fond of society,
and still of a cheerful temper; but the absorbing sophomoric joy in
cakes and ale was now past and not to return. The pinch of necessity
had come at last: the world no longer offered him the life of an
elegant dawdler. He had a serious business before him,--to gain a
competency for himself and his brother. The unpractical younger
brother was to be after this the mainstay of the family fortunes. And
what especially makes this the finest moment of his life is the sudden
and clear perception that to gain this end he must depend upon the
steady and fruitful exercise of his gift for writing. It was not to be
taken up as a last resort, but as a matter of deliberate choice.
Presently he received the offer of a good position on the Navy Board
at Washington, with a salary of $2400. A few years earlier he would
have snatched at it. "Flattering as the prospect undoubtedly is which
your letters hold out," he wrote to