576 City Sketches. 



"Hear! hear! hear!" cried Messrs. Grasp and Eager. 



" And pray, Sir," resumed Shark, " where is Mr. Blunt ? why is he 

 not here ? he is a large creditor, you perceive, gentlemen." 



'* I cannot account for his absence," replied Walton ; " he received 

 a notice with the rest of the creditors, and I fully expected to see 

 him here. But you know he was unfriendly to my marriage, and we 

 have scarcely heen on terms since. It is, I fear, with no kind feeling 

 towards me that he absents himself from this meeting. 



"A clear case of collusion," answered Mr. Shark, placing his, 

 thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, and tilting back his chair. 



" Decided collusion," chimed Mr. Grasp. 



" Collusion, certainly," acquiesced Mr. Eager. 



" I beg your pardon, it is nothing of the sort," cried Walton, deeply 

 mortified. " Gentlemen, I am astonished at you. Mr. Blunt is no 

 friend of mine but he is an honourable man. He will satisfy you 

 upon this point. He will say no more for me than he can ; but he 

 will say no less than the truth." 



A dead silence succeeded of some moments' duration. Mr. Shark 

 felt that he had gone too far, and the meeting, if they did not respect, 

 were not inclined to disturb such feelings. 



" Pray, Mr. Walton," said Sharp, taking off his spectacles, and 

 balancing them on the table, " did you not, some years ago, keep 

 your country house at Highbury, and a gig I think you kept a 



gig?" 



" You are correct, Sir," said Walton, " it was some years ago. But 



I have parted with them these five years." 



"And so you keep a mansion, and an elegant vehicle with our 

 money, eh ? do you ' said Eager. 



" That I have not done so," answered Walton, " my books will 

 show ; for within the last twelvemonth I was perfectly solvent." 



" Ho ! ho !" cried Shark, " and how comes this ?" ' 



" Bad debts, which few have escaped during the last year.'' 



" Bad debts ! bad management, habits of expense, no doubt of that. 

 / never make bad debts." 



"You forget, Mr. Shark," said one of the creditors with a smile, 

 < that you are the largest creditor on this occasion." 



Mr. Shark cast a deprecating glance at the speaker. 



" May I ask," said Eager with an ungainly grin, " may I ask at 

 what rate you have been living during the last three years ?" 



"I should think, Sir, my expenses have not averaged three hundred 

 a year." 



*'I should think not, indeed," said Grasp. 



" I have a wife and four children,'' said Walton. 



' A wife and four children ! what of that ?'* cried Eager, " I have 

 no wife and children." 



" Shocking imprudence !'' mumbled Grasp. Grasp had recently 

 married a second wife, and was furnished with eight of those interesting 

 articles. 



" Their education is expensive," suggested Walton. 



" Oh ! you have them educated," cried Eager with a sneer "there 

 was nothing of that sort in my time : for my part I can't see the use 

 of such nonsense. I suppose they must be educated like gentlemen, Sir?" 



