they believed us to be more sinned against than
sinning.

Some of those who thus reversed their
judgment against us, were our creditors to a large,
others only to a small, amount. It was with the
latter that we first attempted to carry our point
of getting the paper signed, which would
release us from the debts and liabilities of our
former trading. The difficulty was to get any
one who would sign first, for in business matters
the true City man always follows with the
crowd. He will always object to be the first to
take any decided step, but, the moment others
take it. he will rush to copy the example.
Some of our Greek friends—apparently unknown
to us, but in reality at our suggestion—called a
private meeting of our creditors, and put
forward that it was a pity a firm like ours, now
struggling into new existence, should be
hampered by former liabilities, and offered there
and then to pay down three shillings in the
pound, provided not less than three-fourths of
our creditors signed. To this proposition the
meeting gave no decided answer, but required
a fortnight for consideration. The gentlemen
who had called our creditors together, gave
them to understand that the needful money
had been chiefly subscribed by personal friends
of ours, and that although for all future
transactions we had more than one wealthy firm to
back us, no further help than what was now
offered would be forthcoming, and that if the
offer were not closed with at once, even this
would be withdrawn.

That the statement was altogether untrue I
need hardly say. The three shillings in the
pound which was offered for our debts came
from ourselves. We had gained by our latter
trading some little money, which, together with
a little more withdrawn from what we had put
by before stopping payment, made up the sum.

That the result of the required consideration
would be favourable, we had not the slightest
doubt. When a debt is of long standing, the
creditors in nine cases out of ten will take
almost anything down to be rid of the matter.
This is the reason why, in a case like ours, it is
of immense importance to gain time, and to tire
out the creditors' patience.

At the second meeting of creditors, our
proposition was formally accepted, two of our
Greek friends present giving an undertaking
that the money should be forthcoming within
thirty days, and thus we were once more free
men, and perhaps more honoured and respected
than if we had never suspended our payments.
Our creditors appeared delighted with their
share in the transaction, and seemed to look
upon the small dividend they got, after waiting
nearly a year for it, as so much treasure-trove.
Not being accustomed to bankruptcy
nor compounding with creditors, I felt as if
a load had been removed from my back, or a
chain from my leg. But not so my partner.
Mr. Velardi seemed to think we had paid
too much for our release, and grumbled
accordingly. "If we had only worked on a little
longer, and had tired them out a little more,"
he kept repeating, "they would have taken
eighteenpence, have given a receipt in full of
all demands, have been much more thankful
than they are, and have thought all the better
of us."

The firm of Velardi, Watson, and Co. now
flourishes, and does a larger business than ever.
We have correspondents in all parts of Europe
as well as in the chief towns of the Levant.
In London, at Amsterdam, Hamburg,
Marseilles, Constantinople, Salonica, Alexandria,
Smyrna, and Beyrout, bills drawn upon us, or
bearing our indorsement, are easily negotiable,
and are always met at maturity. Our credit is
good everywhere. It would be difficult to
say what kind of business we do not do, although
we confine ourselves chiefly to that which goes
by the name of the Levant Trade. I have a
handsome well-furnished country-house, standing
in five acres of my own ground, on the
London and Brighton line. I allow my eldest
son, who is a cornet in a crack hussar regiment,
six hundred a year besides his pay; and my
daughter, who is to be married next month, will
have five thousand pounds on her wedding-day.
My partner has larger ideas as well as more
money than I, and owns one of the handsomest
mansions in Westbourne-terrace. In every sense
of the word we are most respectable men, and
we shall continue to be most respectable men,
unless another commercial crisis takes place,
when we shall find it rather difficult not to
stop payment; for, at a rough calculation, I
take our liabilities to be about one thousand
times greater than our assets could ever
become.

                    NEW WORK BY MR. DICKENS,
In Monthly Parts, uniform with the Original Editions of
                    "Pickwick," "Copperfleld," &c.
             Now publishing, PART XIII., price Is., of
                         OUR MUTUAL FRIEND.
                         BY CHARLES DICKENS.
                    IN TWENTY MONTHLY PARTS.
             With Illustrations by MARCUS STONE.
             London: CHAPMAN and HALL, 193, Piccadilly.