A 'MATUTINAL HOUR.' 145 



" What's the use of making a Will, when you've 

 nothing to leave ? They should have left us another 

 war, and short harvests ; that 'ould have done better 

 than any laws, I fancy, to keep up prices." 



"Postponed the change, perhaps; not prevented 

 it : it was inevitable some day. The fairer course 

 would have been to have accepted it when it fell due, 

 and begun afresh, with some of those guineas in hand 

 that you speak of." 



" Well : it has been but a crumbling wall for 

 twenty years, ever since the War ended, with now 

 and then a bit of a check, in spite of all the laws to 

 prevent it : and these three fair harvests have laid us 

 now as flat as we could lie, if the worst had come to 

 the worst." 



" It seems then that to inherit a falling market is 

 worse than to be born into a low one. You're but right. 

 The latter admits of hope; the other is continued 

 mis-calculation, and disappointment : and something 

 worse than either." 



"And what's that?" 



" I won't tell you till after breakfast ! Come, you 

 old Grumbler, it's the driest subject in Creation, and 

 will take you three cups of hot coffee to get it down. 

 You shan't come into my Sanctum with those boots 

 boots ! why, they're like barges, sunk to waterVedgc ! 



L 



