t of dreary satisfaction in listening
to the grotesque sorrows of one whose condition seemed to him yet more
abject than his own--"And the York Theatre alone perhaps did you."

"Right, sir," said Rugge--half-dolorously, half-exultingly. "It was a
Grand Concern, and might have done for the Bank of England! It swallowed
up my capital with as much ease, sir, as I could swallow an oyster if
there were one upon that plate! I saw how it would be, the very first
week--when I came out myself, strong--Kean's own part in the Iron
Chest--Mortimer, sir; there warn't three pounds ten in the house--packed
audience, sir, and they had the face to hiss me. 'Hag,' said I to
Mrs. Gormerick, 'this Theatre is a howling wilderness.' But there is a
fascination in a Grand Concern, of which one is the head--one goes on
and on. All the savings of a life devoted to the British Drama and the
production of native genius went in what I may call--a jiffey! But
it was no common object, sir, to your sight displayed--but what with
pleasure, sir (I appeal to the Hag), Heaven itself surveyed!--a great
man struggling, sir, with the storms of fate, and greatly falling, sir,
with--a sensation! York remembers it to this day! I took the benefit of
the Act--it was the only benefit I did take--and nobody was the better
for it. But I don't repine--I realised my dream: that is more than all
can say. Since then I have had many downs, and no ups. I have been a
messenger, sir--a prompter, sir, in my own Exhibition, to which my
own clown, having married into the tragic line, succeeded, sir, as
proprietor; buying of me when I took the York, the theatre, scenery,
and properties, sir, with the right still to call himself 'Rugge's Grand
Theatrical Exhibition,' for an old song, sir--Melancholy. Tyrannised
over, sir--snubbed and bullied by a creature dressed in a little brief
authority; and my own tights--scarlet--as worn by me in my own applauded
part of 'The Remorseless Baron.' At last, with this one faithful
creature, I resolved to burst the chains--to be free as air--in short, a
chartered libertine, sir. We have not much, but thank the immortal gods,
we are independent, sir--the Hag and I--chartered libertines! And we are
alive still--at which, in strict confidence, I may own to you that I am
astonished."

"Yes! you do live," said Jasper, much interested--for how to live at all
was at that moment a matter of considerable doubt to himself; "you do
live--it is amazing! H