"The subscribed and _bona fide_ capital is FIVE MILLIONS STERLING.
"The body of directors you know. Suffice it to say that the managing director is John Brough, Esq., of the firm of Brough and Hoff, a Member of Parliament, and a man as well known as Mr. Rothschild in the City of London. His private fortune, I know for a fact, amounts to half a million; and the last dividends paid to the shareholders of the I. W. D. a.s.sociation amounted to 6.125 per cent. per annum."
[That I know was the dividend declared by us.]
"Although the shares in the market are at a very great premium, it is the privilege of the four first clerks to dispose of a certain number, 5,000_l_. each at par; and if you, my dearest aunt, would wish for 2,500_l_. worth, I hope you will allow me to oblige you by offering you so much of my new privileges.
"Let me hear from you immediately upon the subject, as I have already an offer for the whole amount of my shares at market price."
"But I haven"t, sir," says I.
"You have, sir. _I_ will take the shares; but I want _you_. I want as many respectable persons in the Company as I can bring. I want you because I like you, and I don"t mind telling you that I have views of my own as well; for I am an honest man and say openly what I mean, and I"ll tell you _why_ I want you. I can"t, by the regulations of the Company, have more than a certain number of votes, but if your aunt takes shares, I expect--I don"t mind owning it--that she will vote with me. _Now_ do you understand me? My object is to be all in all with the Company; and if I be, I will make it the most glorious enterprise that ever was conducted in the City of London."
So I signed the letter and left it with Mr. B. to frank.
The next day I went and took my place at the third clerk"s desk, being led to it by Mr. B., who made a speech to the gents, much to the annoyance of the other chaps, who grumbled about their services: though, as for the matter of that, our services were very much alike: the Company was only three years old, and the oldest clerk in it had not six months"
more standing in it than I. "Look out," said that envious M"Whirter to me. "Have you got money, or have any of your relations money? or are any of them going to put it into the concern?"
I did not think fit to answer him, but took a pinch out of his mull, and was always kind to him; and he, to say the truth, was always most civil to me. As for Gus Hoskins, he began to think I was a superior being; and I must say that the rest of the chaps behaved very kindly in the matter, and said that if one man were to be put over their heads before another, they would have pitched upon me, for I had never harmed any of them, and done little kindnesses to several.
"I know," says Abednego, "how you got the place. It was I who got it you. I told Brough you were a cousin of Preston"s, the Lord of the Treasury, had venison from him and all that; and depend upon it he expects that you will be able to do him some good in that quarter."
I think there was some likelihood in what Abednego said, because our governor, as we called him, frequently spoke to me about my cousin; told me to push the concern in the West End of the town, get as many n.o.blemen as we could to insure with us, and so on. It was in vain I said I could do nothing with Mr. Preston. "Bah! bah!" says Mr. Brough, "don"t tell _me_. People don"t send haunches of venison to you for nothing;" and I"m convinced he thought I was a very cautious prudent fellow, for not bragging about my great family, and keeping my connection with them a secret. To be sure he might have learned the truth from Gus, who lived with me; but Gus would insist that I was hand in glove with all the n.o.bility, and boasted about me ten times as much as I did myself.
The chaps used to call me the "West Ender."
"See," thought I, "what I have gained by Aunt Hoggarty giving me a diamond-pin! What a lucky thing it is that she did not give me the money, as I hoped she would! Had I not had the pin--had I even taken it to any other person but Mr. Polonius, Lady Drum would never have noticed me; had Lady Drum never noticed me, Mr. Brough never would, and I never should have been third clerk of the West Diddles.e.x."
I took heart at all this, and wrote off on the very evening of my appointment to my dearest Mary Smith, giving her warning that a "certain event," for which one of us was longing very earnestly, might come off sooner than we had expected. And why not? Miss S."s own fortune was 70_l_. a year, mine was 150_l_., and when we had 300_l_., we always vowed we would marry. "Ah!" thought I, "if I could but go to Somersetshire now, I might boldly walk up to old Smith"s door" (he was her grandfather, and a half-pay lieutenant of the navy), "I might knock at the knocker and see my beloved Mary in the parlour, and not be obliged to sneak behind hayricks on the look-out for her, or pelt stones at midnight at her window."
My aunt, in a few days, wrote a pretty gracious reply to my letter. She had not determined, she said, as to the manner in which she should employ her three thousand pounds, but should take my offer into consideration; begging me to keep my shares open for a little while, until her mind was made up.
What, then, does Mr. Brough do? I learned afterwards, in the year 1830, when he and the West Diddles.e.x a.s.sociation had disappeared altogether, how he had proceeded.
"Who are the attorneys at Slopperton?" says he to me in a careless way.
"Mr. Ruck, sir," says I, "is the Tory solicitor, and Messrs. Hodge and Smithers the Liberals." I knew them very well, for the fact is, before Mary Smith came to live in our parts, I was rather partial to Miss Hodge, and her great gold-coloured ringlets; but Mary came and soon put _her_ nose out of joint, as the saying is.
"And you are of what politics?"
"Why, sir, we are Liberals." I was rather ashamed of this, for Mr.
Brough was an out-and-out Tory; but Hodge and Smithers is a most respectable firm. I brought up a packet from them to Hickson, Dixon, Paxton, and Jackson, _our_ solicitors, who are their London correspondents.
Mr. Brough only said, "Oh, indeed!" and did not talk any further on the subject, but began admiring my diamond-pin very much.
"t.i.tmarsh, my dear boy," says he, "I have a young lady at Fulham who is worth seeing, I a.s.sure you, and who has heard so much about you from her father (for I like you, my boy, I don"t care to own it), that she is rather anxious to see you too. Suppose you come down to us for a week?
Abednego will do your work."
"Law, sir! you are very kind," says I.
"Well, you shall come down; and I hope you will like my claret. But hark ye! I don"t think, my dear fellow, you are quite smart enough--quite well enough dressed. Do you understand me?"
"I"ve my blue coat and bra.s.s b.u.t.tons at home, sir."
"What! that thing with the waist between your shoulders that you wore at Mrs. Brough"s party?" (It _was_ rather high-waisted, being made in the country two years before.) "No--no, that will never do. Get some new clothes, sir,--two new suits of clothes."
"Sir!" says I, "I"m already, if the truth must be told, very short of money for this quarter, and can"t afford myself a new suit for a long time to come."
"Pooh, pooh! don"t let that annoy you. Here"s a ten-pound note--but no, on second thoughts, you may as well go to my tailor"s. I"ll drive you down there: and never mind the bill, my good lad!" And drive me down he actually did, in his grand coach-and-four, to Mr. Von Stiltz, in Clifford Street, who took my measure, and sent me home two of the finest coats ever seen, a dress-coat and a frock, a velvet waist-coat, a silk ditto, and three pairs of pantaloons, of the most beautiful make. Brough told me to get some boots and pumps, and silk stockings for evenings; so that when the time came for me to go down to Fulham, I appeared as handsome as any young n.o.bleman, and Gus said that "I looked, by Jingo, like a regular tip-top swell."
In the meantime the following letter had been sent down to Hodge and Smithers:--
"RAM ALLEY, CORNHILL, LONDON: _July_ 1822.
"DEAR SIRS,
[This part being on private affairs relative to the cases of Dixon v.
Haggerstony, Snodgra.s.s v. Rubbidge and another, I am not permitted to extract.]
"Likewise we beg to hand you a few more prospectuses of the Independent West Diddles.e.x Fire and Life Insurance Company, of which we have the honour to be the solicitors in London. We wrote to you last year, requesting you to accept the Slopperton and Somerset agency for the same, and have been expecting for some time back that either shares or a.s.surances should be effected by you.
"The capital of the Company, as you know, is five millions sterling (say 5,000,000_l_.), and we are in a situation to offer more than the usual commission to our agents of the legal profession. We shall be happy to give a premium of 6 per cent. for shares to the amount of 1,000_l_., 6.5 per cent. above a thousand, to be paid immediately upon the taking of the shares.
"I am, dear Sirs, for self and partners, Yours most faithfully, SAMUEL JACKSON."
This letter, as I have said, came into my hands some time afterwards. I knew nothing of it in the year 1822, when, in my new suit of clothes, I went down to pa.s.s a week at the Rookery, Fulham, residence of John Brough, Esquire, M.P.
CHAPTER VII
HOW SAMUEL t.i.tMARSH REACHED THE HIGHEST POINT OF PROSPERITY
If I had the pen of a George Robins, I might describe the Rookery properly: suffice it, however, to say it is a very handsome country place; with handsome lawns sloping down to the river, handsome shrubberies and conservatories, fine stables, outhouses, kitchen-gardens, and everything belonging to a first-rate _rus in urbe_, as the great auctioneer called it when he hammered it down some years after.
I arrived on a Sat.u.r.day at half-an-hour before dinner: a grave gentleman out of livery showed me to my room; a man in a chocolate coat and gold lace, with Brough"s crest on the b.u.t.tons, brought me a silver shaving-pot of hot water on a silver tray; and a grand dinner was ready at six, at which I had the honour of appearing in Von Stiltz"s dress-coat and my new silk stockings and pumps.
Brough took me by the hand as I came in, and presented me to his lady, a stout fair-haired woman, in light blue satin; then to his daughter, a tall, thin, dark-eyed girl, with beetle-brows, looking very ill-natured, and about eighteen.
"Belinda my love," said her papa, "this young gentleman is one of my clerks, who was at our ball."
"Oh, indeed!" says Belinda, tossing up her head.