neither of the young people deemed that he would object to a
partnership of a more domestic description. But here they made a
tremendous mistake. No sooner was such a proposal hinted at, than Mr.
Spires burst forth with the fury of all the winds from the bag of
Ulysses.

"What! a Deg aspire to the hand of the sole heiress of the enormously
opulent Spires?"

The very thought almost cut the proud manufacturer off with an apoplexy.
The hosts of a thousand paupers rose up before him, and he was black in
the face. It was only by a prompt and bold application of leeches and
lancet that the life of the great man was saved. But there was an end of
all further friendship between himself and the expectant Simon. He
insisted that he should withdraw from the concern, and it was done.
Simon, who felt his own dignity deeply wounded too, for dignity he had,
though the last of a long line of paupers--his own dignity, not his
ancestors'--took silently, yet not unrespectfully, his share--a good,
round sum, and entered another house of business.

For several years there appeared to be a feud and a bitterness between
the former friends; yet it showed itself in no other manner than by a
careful avoidance of each other. The continental war came to an end; the
manufacturing distress increased exceedingly. There came troublous times,
and a fierce warfare of politics. Great Stockington was torn asunder by
rival parties. On one side stood preeminent, Mr. Spires; on the other
towered conspicuously, Simon Deg. Simon was grown rich, and extremely
popular. He was on all occasions the advocate of the people. He said that
he had sprung from, and was one of them. He had bought a large tract of
land on one side of the town; and intensely fond of the country and
flowers himself, he had divided this into gardens, built little
summer-houses in them, and let them to the artisans. In his factory he
had introduced order, cleanliness, and ventilation. He had set up a
school for the children in the evenings, with a reading-room and
conversation-room for the work-people, and encouraged them to bring their
families there, and enjoy music, books, and lectures. Accordingly, he was
the idol of the people, and the horror of the old school of
manufacturers.

"A pretty upstart and demagogue I've nurtured," said Mr. Spires often, to
his wife and daughter, who only sighed, and were silent.

Then came a furious election. The town, for a fortnight, more resembled
th