"Well, if they ain't, they're trying to. They told me to sit here a
while, and they'd just walk round. I generally know what that means.
But that's the principal interest for ladies," he added, retracting
his irony. "We thought we'd come up here and see the cathedral; Mrs.
Church seemed to think it a dead loss that we shouldn't see the
cathedral, especially as we hadn't seen many yet. And I had to come
up to the banker's any way. Well, we certainly saw the cathedral. I
don't know as we are any the better for it, and I don't know as I
should know it again. But we saw it, any way. I don't know as I
should want to go there regularly; but I suppose it will give us, in
conversation, a kind of hold on Mrs. Church, eh? I guess we want
something of that kind. Well," Mr. Ruck continued, "I stepped in at
the banker's to see if there wasn't something, and they handed me out
a Herald."

"I hope the Herald is full of good news," I said.

"Can't say it is. D-d bad news."

"Political," I inquired, "or commercial?"

"Oh, hang politics! It's business, sir. There ain't any business.
It's all gone to,"--and Mr. Ruck became profane. "Nine failures in
one day. What do you say-to that?"

"I hope they haven't injured you," I said.

"Well, they haven't helped me much. So many houses on fire, that's
all. If they happen to take place in your own street, they don't
increase the value of your property. When mine catches, I suppose