574 City Sketches. 



The day at length arrived. A room had been engaged at the 

 Baptist's Head in Cateaton Street twelve o'clock was the hour ap- 

 pointed for the meeting ; and Walton felt frightfully assured that 

 some minutes before the clock struck, his several creditors, none of 

 whom he had seeiij since his stoppage, would be drawn up in awful 

 array, prepared to receive him. With a pallid countenance, and a 

 sinking of the spirits which, under the circumstances, he thought ra- 

 ther unaccountable, he ordered his porter to precede him with the 

 books. Alas ! he did not know until now, that conscious integrity 

 which, the moralists tell us, is so serviceable a staff to support a man 

 under his afflictions, is but a poor crutch to enable him to hobble into 

 a meeting of creditors. 



As he entered the room, and approached the table at which the 

 gentlemen were seated, all eyes (and they none of them wore a too 

 mild expression) were fixed upon him, as though anxious to discover 

 through a physiognomical medium what composition the insolvent 

 was likely to offer. The creditors at large received him with a va- 

 riation of coldness or cordiality proportioned to their several claims 

 upon him; but his friend Eager saluted him with, " Oh, here you are: 

 you are rather behind time, Sir ;" the worthy Grasp soothed him by, 

 "Come at last, eh? you suit your own convenience, it seems, Mr. 

 Walton;" whilst the too sensitive and amiable Shark was seized with 

 a sudden cough, not unlike the bellowing of an ox, and entailed a 

 glance upon him worthy of a cockatrice. 



Mr. Shark, being the largest creditor, was forthwith inducted 

 into the chair, and began to enter upon the matter in hand with 

 much expedition. 



" Where are the books, Mr. Walton?" said he, "it is necessary we 

 should see them." The tone in which these words were spoken ra- 

 ther startled the debtor it was so unlike the voice of Mr. Shark 

 when he used to come and prevail upon him to take a parcel of goods. 

 He produced his books, however, which were placed before the largest 

 creditor with great solemnity. 



"Have you prepared a balance sheet, Mr. Walton?" enquired 

 Shark with some sharpness. 



" I have, Sir." 



" Hand it to me then : come quick, what's the man dreaming 

 about ? throw it over ; there, that will do." 



Mr. Shark examined the document with great care, and for a con- 

 siderable period, furnished the creditors, as he proceeded, with such 

 information as they could glean from certain dissatisfied grunts 

 which escaped him at intervals. 



He raised his eyes suddenly, and with his forefinger resting upon, 

 or rather oppressing, a particular item in the balance sheet, thus ad- 

 dressed the pecuniary delinquent : 



"And now, Sir, what composition do you propose to offer us ?'* 



" Why, Sir," said Walton humbly, " I cannot, as you will perceive, 

 guarantee more than seven-and-sixpence in the pound." 



" What !" thundered Shark with a savage glance, as though the 

 debtor had proposed to receive that dividend out of, and not to pay 

 it into, the pockets of his creditors. 



