trifles to a man thinking upon cent per cent? Mainwaring's very
countenance altered; it lost its frank, affectionate beauty: sullen,
abstracted, morose, it showed that some great care was at the core. Then
Lucretia herself began grievingly to notice the change to Susan;
gradually she altered her tone with regard to the speculator, and hinted
vague fears, and urged Susan's remonstrance and warning. As she had
anticipated, warning and remonstrance came in vain to the man who,
comparing Lucretia's mental power to Susan's, had learned to despise the
unlearned, timid sense of the latter.

It is unnecessary to trace this change in Mainwaring step by step, or to
measure the time which sufficed to dazzle his reason and blind his
honour. In the midst of schemes and hopes which the lust of gold now
pervaded came a thunderbolt. An anonymous letter to the head partner of
the bank provoked suspicions that led to minute examination of the
accounts. It seemed that sums had been irregularly advanced (upon bills
drawn by men of straw) to the speculator by Mainwaring; and the
destination of these sums could be traced to gambling operations in trade
in which Mainwaring had a private interest and partnership. So great, as
we have said, had been the confidence placed in William's abilities and
honour that the facilities afforded him in the disposal of the joint
stock far exceeded those usually granted to the partner of a firm, and
the breach of trust appeared the more flagrant from the extent of the
confidence misplaced. Meanwhile, William Mainwaring, though as yet
unconscious of the proceedings of his partners, was gnawed by anxiety and
remorse, not unmixed with hope. He depended upon the result of a bold
speculation in the purchase of shares in a Canal Company, a bill for
which was then before parliament, with (as he was led to believe) a
certainty of success. The sums he had, on his own responsibility,
abstracted from the joint account were devoted to this adventure. But,