property of the firm is able to answer all fair demands in due course. But
here's a set and a run made against us, and no house could stand without
the assistance, that is, the forbearance of friends--that's what we must
look to. Some of our friends, in particular Mr. Montenero, have been very
friendly indeed--very handsome and liberal--and we have nothing to say; we
cannot, in reason, expect him to do more for the Coates's or for us.' And
then came accounts of the executors, &c., in his banking jargon.

"What the deuce was all this to me, you know? and how awkward I felt, held
by the button there, to rejudge Mr. Montenero's acts! I had nothing for it
but my snuff-box. But Baldwin's a mere clerk--cannot guess at the feelings
of a gentleman. Mr. Montenero, I observed, looked down upon Baldwin all the
time with so much the air of a high-bred gentleman, that I began to think
he could not be the Jew--Montenero.

"Baldwin, still thinking only of holding him up as an example to me, went
on, saying, 'Mr. Montenero, who is a foreigner, and a stranger to the
house, has done so and so, and we trust our old friends will do as much--
Mr. Harrington in particular. There's our books on the table, open to Mr.
Harrington--he will see we shall be provided on the fifteenth instant; but,
in short, if Mr. Harrington draws his L30,000 to-day, he drives us to pay
in sixpences--so there's the case.' In short, it came to this: if I drew, I
certainly ruined them; if I did not draw, I ran a great hazard of being
ruined myself. No, Baldwin would not have it that way--so when he had
stated it after his own fashion, and put it into and out of his banker's
jargon, it came out to be, that if I drew directly I was certain to lose
the whole; and if I did not draw, I should have a good chance of losing a
great part. I pulled my button away from the fellow, and without listening
to any more of his jabbering, for I saw he was only speaking _against
time_, and all on his own side of the question, I turned to look at the