" said John, gloomily.

"Hark! those people outside will hammer my door down!--Speak to them,
Mr. Halifax--tell them I'm an old man--that I was always an honest
man--always. If only they would give me time--hark--just hark! Heaven
help me! do they want to tear me in pieces?"

John went out for a few moments, then came back and sat down beside Mr.
Jessop.

"Compose yourself,"--the old man was shaking like an aspen leaf. "Tell
me, if you have no objection to give me this confidence, exactly how
your affairs stand."

With a gasp of helpless thankfulness, looking up in John's face, while
his own quivered like a frightened child's--the banker obeyed. It
seemed that great as was his loss by W----'s failure, it was not
absolute ruin to him. In effect, he was at this moment perfectly
solvent, and by calling in mortgages, etc., could meet both the
accounts of the gentry who banked with him, together with all his own
notes now afloat in the country, principally among the humbler ranks,
petty tradespeople, and such like, if only both classes of customers
would give him time to pay them.

"But they will not. There will be a run upon the bank and then all's
over with me. It's a hard case--solvent as I am--ready and able to pay
every farthing--if only I had a week's time. As it is I must stop
payment to-day. Hark! they are at the door again! Mr. Halifax, for
God's sake quiet them!"

"I will; only tell me first what sum, added to the cash you have
available, would keep the bank open--just for a day or two."

At once guided and calmed, the old man's business faculties seemed to
return. He began to calculate, and soon stated the sum he needed; I
think it was three or four thousand pounds.

"Very well; I have thought of a plan. But first--those poor fellows
outside. Thank Heaven, I am a rich man, and everybody knows it.
Phineas, that inkstand, please."

He sat down and wrote: curiously the attitude and manner reminded me
of his sitting down and writing at my father's table, after the bread
riot--years and years ago. Soon a notice, signed by Josiah Jessop, and
afterwards by himself, to the effect that the bank would open, "without
fail," at one o'clock this day,--was given by John to the astonished
clerk, to be posted in the window.

A responsive cheer outside showed how readily those outside had caught
at even this gleam of hope. Also--how implicitly they trusted in the
mere name of a gentleman who all over the