seen my hand tremble as the bottle went click, click, against the glass. By the time I had swallowed it, the old lady had finished her operations at the bureau, and was coming towards me, the wax candle bobbing in one hand, and a large parcel in the other. Now's the time, thought I. "Samuel, my dear nephew," said she, "your first name you received from your sainted uncle, my blessed husband; and of all my nephews and nieces, you are the one whose conduct in life has most pleased me." When you consider that my aunt herself was one of seven married sisters, that all the Hoggarties were married in Ireland and mothers of numerous children, I must say that the compliment my aunt paid me was a very handsome one. "Dear aunt," says I, in a slow, agitated voice, "I have often heard you say there were seventy-three of us in all, and believe me I do think your high opinion of me very complimentary indeed; I'm unworthy of it,-indeed I am." "As for those odious Irish people," says my aunt, rather sharply, "don't speak of them; I hate them, and every one of their mothers" (the fact is, there had been a lawsuit about Hoggarty's property); "but of all my other kindred, you, Samuel, have been the most dutiful and affectionate to me. Your employers in London give the best accounts of your regularity and good conduct. Though you have had eighty pounds a-year (a liberal salary), you have not spent a shilling more than your income, as other young men would; and you have devoted your month's holydays to your old aunt, who, I assure you, is grateful." Oh, ma'am!" said I. It was all that I could utter. "Samuel," continued she, “ I promised you a present, and here it is. I first thought of giving you money; but you are a regular lad, and don't want it. You are above money, dear Samuel. I give you what I value most in life-the p-, the po, the po-ortrait of my sainted Hoggarty (tears), set in the locket which contains the valuable diamond that you have often heard me speak of. Wear it, dear Sam, for my sake; and think of that angel in heaven, and of your dear aunt Dosy." She put the machine into my hands; it was about the size of the lid of a shaving-box; and I should as soon have thought of wearing it, as of wearing a cocked hat and a pigtail. I was so disgusted and disappointed, that I really could not get out a single word. When I recovered my presence of mind a little, I took the locket out of the paper (the locket, indeed! it was as big as a barn-door padlock), and slowly put it into my shirt. "Thank you, aunt," said I, with admirable raillery. "I shall always value this present for the sake of you, who gave it me; and it will recall to me my uncle, and my thirteen aunts in Ireland." "I don't want you to wear it in that way!" shrieked Mrs. Hoggarty, "with the hair of those odious carroty women. You must have their hair removed." "Then the locket will be spoiled, aunt." 66 Well, sir, never mind the locket, have it set afresh." "Or suppose," said I, "I put aside the setting altogether: it is a little too large for the present fashion; and have the portrait of my uncle framed and placed over my chimney-piece, next to yours. It's a sweet miniature." "That minature," said Mrs. Hoggarty, solemnly, "was the great Mulcahy's chef d'œuvre," pronounced shy dewver, a favourite word of my aunt's, being with the words bongtong and ally mode de Parry, the extent of my aunt's French vocabulary. "You know the dreadful story of that poor, poor artist. When he had finished that wonderful likeness for the late Mrs. Hoggarty of Castle Hoggarty, county Mayo, she wore it in her bosom at the Lordlieutenant's ball, where she played a game of picquet with the commanderin-chief. What could have made her put the hair of her vulgar daughters round Mick's portrait, I can't think; but so it was, as you see it this day. 'Madam,' says the commander-inchief, ' if that is not my friend, Mick Hoggarty, I'm a Dutchman! Those were his lordship's very words. Mrs. Hoggarty of Castle Hoggarty took off the brooch and shewed it to him." "What's that?' says Mrs. Hoggarty of Castle Hoggarty. "Madam, he has been painted WITHOUT HIS SWORD-BELT!' and he took up the cards again in a passion, and finished the game without saying a single word. "The news was carried to Mr. Mulcahy the next day, and that unfortunate artist went mad immediately! He had set his whole reputation upon this miniature, and declared that it should be faultless. Such was the effect of the announcement upon his susceptible heart! When Mrs. Hoggarty died, your uncle took the portrait and always wore it himself. His sisters said it was for the sake of the diamond; whereas, ungrateful things! it was merely on account of their hair, and his love for the fine arts. As for the poor artist, my dear, some people said it was the profuse use of spirit that brought on delirium tremens, but I don't believe it. Take another glass of Rosolio.” The telling of this story always put my aunt into great good humour, and she promised at the end of it to pay for the new setting of the diamond, desiring me to take it on my arrival in London to the great jeweller, Mr. Polonius, and send her the bill. "The fact is," said she, "that the goold in which the thing is set is worth five guincas at the very least, and you can have the diamond reset for two. However, keep the remainder, dear Sam, and buy yourself what you please with it." With this the old lady bade me adieu. The clock was striking twelve as I walked down the village, for the story of Mulcahy always took an hour in the telling, and I went away not quite so down-hearted as when the present was first made to me. "After all," thought I, "a diamond pin is a handsome thing, and will give me a distingué air, though my clothes be never so shabby," and shabby they were without any doubt. Well," I said, "three guineas, which I shall have over, will buy me a couple of pairs of what-d'ye-call'ems," of which, entre nous, I 66 was in great want, having just then done growing, whereas my pantaloons were made a good eighteen months before. Well, I walked down the village, my hands in my breeches-pocket; I had poor Mary's purse there, having removed the little things which she gave me the day before, and placed them-never mind where; but look you, in those days I had a heart, and a warm one too; I had Mary's purse ready for my aunt's donation, which never came, and with my own little stock of money besides, that Mrs. Hoggarty's card-parties had lessened by a good five-and-twenty shillings. I calculated that after paying my fare, I should get to town with a couple of seven-shilling pieces in my pocket. I walked down the village at a deuce of a pace; so quick that if the thing had been possible, I should have overtaken ten o'clock that had passed by me two hours ago, when I was listening to Mrs. H.'s long stories over her terrible Rosolio. The truth is, at ten I had an appointment under a certain person's window, who was to have been looking at the moon at that hour, with her pretty quilled night-cap on and her blessed hair in papers. There was the window shut, and not so much as a candle in it; and though I hemmed, and hawed, and whistled over the garden-paling, and sung a song of which Somebody was very fond, and even threw a pebble at the window, which hit it exactly at the opening of the lattice,-I woke no one except a great brute of a house-dog, that yelled, and howled, and bounced so at me over the rails, that I thought every moment he would have had my nose between his teeth. So I was obliged to go off as quickly as might be; and the next morning mamma and my sisters made breakfast for me at four, and at five came the True Blue light six-inside post-coach to London, and I got up on the roof without having seen Mary Smith. As we passed the house, it did seem as if the window-curtain in her room was drawn aside just a little bit. Certainly the window was open, and it had been shut the night before; but away went the coach, and the village, cottage, and the churchyard, and Hicks's hay-ricks, were soon out of sight. * "My hi, what a pin!" said a stableboy who was smoking a cigar, to the guard, looking at me and putting his finger to his nose. The fact is, that I had never undressed since my aunt's party; and being uneasy in mind and having all my clothes to pack up, and thinking of something else, had quite forgotten Mrs. Hoggarty's brooch, which I had stuck into my shirt-frill the night before. CHAPTER II. TELLS HOW THE DIAMOND IS BROUGHT UP TO LONDON, AND PRODUCES WONDERFUL FFFECTS BOTH IN THE CITY AND AT THE WEST END. The circumstances recorded in this story took place about eighteen years ago, when, as the reader may remember, there was a great mania in the city of London for establishing companies of all sorts, by which many people made pretty fortunes. I was at this period, as the truth must be known, thirteenth clerk of twenty-four young gents who did the immense business of the Independent West Diddlesex Fire and Life Insurance Company, at their splendid stone mansion in Cornhill. Mamma had sunk a sum of four hundred pounds in the purchase of an annuity at this office, which paid her no less than six-and-thirty pounds a-year, when no other company in London would give her more than twenty-four. The chairman of the directors was the great Mr. Brough, of the house of Brough and Hoff, Crutchedfriars, Turkey merchants. It was a new house, but did a tremendous business in the fig and sponge way, and more in the Zante currant line than any other firm in the City. Brough was a great man among the Dissenting connexion, and you saw his name for hundreds at the head of every charitable society patronised by those good people. He had nine clerks residing at his office in Crutchedfriars; he would not take one without a certificate from the schoolmaster and clergyman of his native place, strongly vouching for his morals and doctrine; and the places were so run after, that he got a premium of four or five hundred pounds with each young gent, whom he made a slave for ten hours man on 'Change, too; and our young chaps used to hear from the stockbrokers' clerks (we commonly dined together at the Cock and Woolpack, a respectable house, where you get a capital cut of meat, bread, vegetables, cheese, half a pint of porter, and a penny to the waiter, for a shilling)— the young stock brokers used to tell us of immense bargains in Spanish, Greek, and Columbians, that Brough made. Hoff had nothing to do with them, but stopped at home minding exclusively the business of the house. He was a young chap, very quiet and steady, of the Quaker persuasion, and had been taken into partnership by Brough for a matter of thirty thousand pounds, and a very good bargain too. I was told in the strictest confidence that the house one year with another divided a good seven thousand pounds; of which Brough had half, Hoff two-sixths, and the other sixth went to old Tudlow, who had been Mr. Brough's clerk before the new partnership began. Tudlow always went about very shabby, and we thought him an old miser. One of our gents, Bob Swinney by name, used to say that Tudlow's share was all nonsense, and that Hoff had it all; but Bob was always too knowing by half, used to wear a green cut-away coat, and had his free admission to Covent Garden theatre. He was always talking down at the shop, as we called it (it wasn't a shop, but as splendid an office as any in Cornhill)- he was always talking about Vestris and Miss Tree, and singing "The bramble, the bramble, the rage then, taken from a famous story-book by one Peacock, a clerk in the India House, and a precious good place he has too. When Brough heard how Master Swinney abused him, and had his admission to the theatre, he came one day down to the office where we all were, four-and-twenty of us, and made one of the most beautiful speeches I ever heard in my life. He said that for slander he did not care, contumely was the lot of every public man who had austere principles of his own, and acted by them austerely; but what he did care for was the character of every single gentleman forming a part of the Independent West Diddlesex Association. The welfare of thousands was in their keeping; millions of money were daily passing through their hands; the city-the country looked upon them for order, honesty, and good example. And if he found amongst those whom he considered as his children-those whom he loved as his own flesh and blood-that that order was departed from, that that regularity was not maintained, that that good example was not kept up (Mr. B. always spoke in this emphatic way)-if he found his children departing from the wholesome rules of morality, religion, and decorumif he found in high or low-in the head clerk at six hundred a-year down to the porter who cleaned the steps-if he found the slightest taint of dissipation, he would cast the offender from him-yea, though he were his own son, he would cast him from him! As he spoke this Mr. Brough burst into tears; and we who didn't know what was coming, looked at each other as pale as parsnips; all except Swinney, who was twelfth clerk, and made believe to whistle. When Mr. B. had wiped his eyes and recovered himself, he turned round; and, oh, how my heart thumped as he looked me full in the face! How it was relieved, though, when he shouted out in a thundering voice, "Mr. ROBERT SWINNEY!" "Sir to you," says Swinney, as cool as possible, and some of the chaps began to titter. "Mr. SWINNEY!" roared Brough, in a voice still bigger than before, "when you came into this officethis family, sir, for such it is, as I am proud to say-you found three-andtwenty as pious and well-regulated young men as ever laboured together -as ever had confided to them the wealth of this mighty capital and famous empire. You found, sir, sobriety, regularity, and decorum; no profane songs were uttered in this place sacred to- to business; no slanders were whispered against the heads of the establishment-but over them I pass; I can afford, sir, to pass them by- no worldly conversation or foul jesting disturbed the attention of these gentlemen, or desecrated the peaceful scene of their labours. You found Christians and gentlemen, sir!” "I paid for my place like the rest," said Swinney. Didn't my governor take sha Silence, sir! Your worthy father did take shares in this establishment, which will yield him one day an immense profit. He did take shares, sir, or you never would have been here. I glory in saying that every one of my young friends around me has a father, a brother, a dear relative or friend, who is connected in a similar way with our glorious enterprise; and that not one of them is there but has an interest in procuring, at a liberal commission, other persons to join the ranks of our association. But, sir, I am its chief. You will find, sir, your appointment signed by me; and in like manner I, John Brough, annul it. Go from us, sir!-leave us-quit a family that can no longer receive you in its bosom! Mr. Swinney, I have wept-I have prayed, sir, before I came to this determination; I have taken counsel, sir, and am resolved. Depart from out of us!”” "Not without three months' salary, though. Mr. B. that cock won't fight!" "They shall be paid to your father, sir." "My father be hanged! I'll tell you what, Brough, I'm of age; and if you don't pay me my salary, I'll arrest you,- by Jingo, I will! I'll have you in quod, or my name's not Bob Swinney!" "Make out a cheque, Mr. Roundhand, for the three months' salary of this perverted young man." 66 Twenty-one pun five, Roundhand, and nothing for the stamp!" cried out that audacious Swinney. "There it is, sir, re-ceipted. You needn't cross it to my banker's. And if any of you gents like a glass of punch this evening at eight o'clock, Bob Swinney's your man, and nothing to pay. If Mr. Brough would do me the honour to come in and take a whack? Come, don't say no, if you'd rather not!" We couldn't stand this impudence, and all burst out laughing like mad. "Leave the room!" yelled Mr. Brough, whose face had turned quite blue; and so Bob took his white hat off the peg, and strolled away with his 66 tile," as he called it, very much on one side. When he was gone, Mr. Brough gave us another lecture, by which we all determined to profit; and going up to Roundhand's desk put his arm round his neck, and looked over the ledger. "What money has been paid in to-day, Roundhand?" he said, in a very kind way. "The widow, sir, came with her money: nine hundred and four, ten and six-say 9047. 10s. 6d. Captain Sparr, sir, paid his shares up; grumbles, though, and says he's no more: fifty shares, two instalmentsthree fifties, sir." Mr. Roundhand went through the book, and made it up nineteen hundred pounds in all. We were doing a famous business now; though when I came into the office we used to sit and laugh, and joke, and read the newspapers all day, bustling into our seats whenever a stray customer came. Brough never cared about our laughing and singing then, and was hand and glove with Bob Swinney; but that was in early times, before we were well in harness. "Nineteen hundred pounds, and a thousand pounds in shares. Bravo, Roundhand-bravo, gentlemen! Remember every share you bring in brings you five per cent down on the nail! Look to your friends-stick to your desks-be regular-I hope none of you forget church. Who takes Mr. Swinney's place ?" Mr. Samuel Titmarsh, sir.” "Mr. Titmarsh, I congratulate you. Give me your hand, sir; you are now twelfth clerk of this Association, and your salary is con sequently increased five pounds a-year. How is your worthy mother, sir-your dear and excellent parent? In good health, I trust? And long -long, I fervently pray, may this office continue to pay her annuity! Remember, if she has more money to lay out, there is higher interest than the last for her, for she is a year older, and five per cent for you, my boy! Why not you as well as another? Young men will be young men, and a ten-pound note does no harm. Does it, Mr. Abednego ?" "Oh, no!" says Abednego, who was third clerk, and who was the chap that informed against Swinney; and he began to laugh, as indeed we all did whenever Mr. Brough made any thing like a joke; not that they were jokes, only we used to know it by his face. "But—no buts, my boy! Iark ye! the Chancellor of the Exchequer does me the honour to dine with us, and I want you to see him; for the truth is, I have bragged about you to his lordship as the best actuary in the three kingdoms." Roundhand could not refuse such an invitation as that, though he had told us how Mrs. R. and he were going to pass Saturday and Sunday at Putney; and we who knew what a life the poor fellow led, were sure that the head clerk would be prettily scolded by his lady when she heard what was going on. She disliked Mrs. Brough very much, that was the fact; because Mrs. B. kept a carriage, and said she didn't know where Pentonville was, and couldn't call on Mrs. Roundhand. Though, to be sure, her coachman might have found out the way. |