Let us be serious.--Business!
The new scene
plunges us head foremost into
the affairs of
the Levant trading-house of Pizzituti,
Turlington & Branca. What on
earth do we know about the Levant
Trade? Courage! If we have ever
known what it is to want money
we are perfectly familiar with
the subject at starting. The
Levant Trade does occasionally
get into difficulties.--Turlington
wanted money.
The letter which had been handed
to him on board the yacht was
from his third partner, Mr. Branca,
and was thus expressed:
"A crisis in
the trade. All right, so far--except
our business
with the small foreign firms.
Bills to meet from those quarters,
(say) forty thousand pounds--and,
I fear, no remittances to cover
them. Particulars stated in another
letter addressed to you at Post-office,
Ilfracombe. I am quite broken
down with anxiety, and confined
to my bed. Pizzituti is still
detained at Smyrna. Come back
at once."
The same evening Turlington
was at his office in Austin Friars,
investigating the state of affairs,
with his head clerk to help him.
Stated briefly,
the business of the firm was
of the widely
miscellaneous sort. They plied
a brisk trade in a vast variety
of commodities. Nothing came
amiss to them, from Manchester
cotton manufactures to Smyrna
figs. They had branch houses
at Alexandria and Odessa, and
correspondents here, there, and
everywhere, along the shores
of the Mediterranean, and in
the ports of the East. These
correspondents were the persons
alluded to in Mr. Branca's letter
as "small foreign firms;" and
they had produced the serious
financial crisis in the affairs
of the great house in Austin
Friars, which had hurried Turlington
up to London.
Every one of
these minor firms claimed and
received the privilege
of drawing bills on Pizzituti,
Turlington & Branca for amounts
varying from four to six thousand
pounds--on no better security
than a verbal understanding that
the money to pay the bills should
be forwarded before they fell
due. Competition, it is needless
to say, was at the bottom of
this insanely reckless system
of trading. The native firms
laid it down as a rule that they
would decline to transact business
with any house in the trade which
refused to grant them their privilege.
In the ease of Turlington's house,
the foreign merchants had drawn
their bills on him for sums large
in the aggregate, if not large
in themselves; had long since
turned those bills into cash
in their own markets, for their
own necessities; and had now
left the money which their paper
represented to be paid by their
London correspondents as it fell
due. In some instances, they
had sent nothing but promises
and excuses. In others, they
had forwarded drafts on firms
which had failed already, or
which were about to fail, in
the crisis. After first exhausting
his resources in ready money,
Mr. Branca had provided for the
more pressing necessities by
pledging the credit of the house,
so far as he _could_ pledge it
without exciting suspicion of
the truth. This done, there were
actually left, between that time
and Christmas, liabilities to
be met to the extent of forty
thousand pounds, without a farthing
in hand to pay that formidable
debt.
After working through the night,
this was the conclusion at which
Richard Turlington arrived, when
the rising sun looked in at him
through the windows of his private
room.
The whole force of the blow
had fallen on _him_. The share
of his partners in the business
was of the most trifling nature.
The capital was his, the risk
was his. Personally and privately,
_he_ had to find the money, or
to confront the one other alternative--
ruin.
How was the money to be found?
With his position
in the City, he had only to
go to the famous
money-lending and discounting
house of Bulpit Brothers--reported
to "turn over" millions in their
business every year--and to supply
himself at once with the necessary
funds. Forty thousand pounds
was a trifling transaction to
Bulpit Brothers.
Having got the money, how,
in the present state of his trade,
was the loan to be paid back?
His thoughts reverted to his
marriage with Natalie.
"Curious!" he said to himself,
recalling his conversation with
Sir Joseph on board the yacht. "Graybrooke
told me he would give his daughter
half his fortune on her marriage.
Half Graybrooke's fortune happens
to be just forty thousand pounds!" He
took a turn in the room. No!
It was impossible to apply to
Sir Joseph. Once shake Sir Joseph's
conviction of his commercial
solidity, and the marriage would
be certainly deferred--if not
absolutely broken off. Sir Joseph's
fortune could be made available,
in the present emergency, in
but one way--he might use it
to repay his debt. He had only
to make the date at which the
loan expired coincide with the
date of his marriage, and there
was his father-in-law's money
at his disposal, or at his wife's
disposal--which meant the same
thing. "It's well I pressed Graybrooke
about the marriage when I did!" he
thought. "I can borrow the money
at a short date. In three months
from this Natalie will be my
wife."
He drove to his club to get
breakfast, with his mind cleared,
for the time being, of all its
anxieties but one.
Knowing where he could procure
the loan, he was by no means
equally sure of being able to
find the security on which he
could borrow the money. Living
up to his income; having no expectations
from any living creature; possessing
in landed property only some
thirty or forty acres in Somersetshire,
with a quaint little dwelling,
half farm house, half-cottage,
attached-- he was incapable of
providing the needful security
from his own personal resources.
To appeal to wealthy friends
in the City would be to let those
friends into the secret of his
embarrassments, and to put his
credit in peril. He finished
his breakfast, and went back
to Austin Friars--failing entirely,
so far, to see how he was to
remove the last obstacle now
left in his way.
The doors were open to the
public; business had begun. He
had not been ten minutes in his
room before the shipping-clerk
knocked at the door and interrupted
him, still absorbed in his own
anxious thoughts.
"What is it?" he
asked, irritably.
"Duplicate Bills of Lading,
sir," answered the clerk, placing
the documents on his ma ster's
table.
Found! There was the security
on his writing-desk, staring
him in the face! He dismissed
the clerk and examined the papers.
They contained an account of
goods shipped to the London house
on board vessels sailing from
Smyrna and Odessa, and they were
signed by the masters of the
ships, who thereby acknowledged
the receipt of the goods, and
undertook to deliver them safely
to the persons owning them, as
directed. First copies of these
papers had already been placed
in the possession of the London
house. The duplicates had now
followed, in case of accident.
Richard Turlington instantly
determined to make the duplicates
serve as his security, keeping
the first copies privately under
lock and key, to be used in obtaining
possession of the goods at the
customary time. The fraud was
a fraud in appearance only. The
security was a pure formality.
His marriage would supply him
with the funds needed for repaying
the money, and the profits of
his business would provide, in
course of time, for restoring
the dowry of his wife. It was
simply a question of preserving
his credit by means which were
legitimately at his disposal.
Within the lax limits of mercantile
morality, Richard Turlington
had a conscience. He put on his
hat and took his false security
to the money-lenders, without
feeling at all lowered in his
own estimation as an honest man.
Bulpit Brothers, long desirous
of having such a name as his
on their books, received him
with open arms. The security
(covering the amount borrowed)
was accepted as a matter of course.
The money was lent, for three
months, with a stroke of the
pen. Turlington stepped out again
into the street, and confronted
the City of London in the character
of the noblest work of mercantile
creation--a solvent man.*
The Fallen Angel, walking invisibly
behind, in Richard's shadow,
flapped his crippled wings in
triumph. From that moment the
Fallen Angel had got him. -----------
* It may not be amiss to remind
the incredulous reader that a
famous firm in the City accepted
precisely the same security as
that here accepted by Bulpit
Brothers, with the same sublime
indifference to troubling themselves
by making any inquiry about it.
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