Rodd did not like Arthur, but he did silent homage to his sharpness.
He hastened to the safe and was back in two minutes with twenty rouleaux of sovereigns. "Shall I break them, sir?" he asked.
"Yes, I think so. Ah!" as the door swung open and one of the Welsh brothers entered. It was Mr. Frederick. Arthur nodded. "Good day, Welsh, I was thinking of you. I fancy Clement wants to see you."
"Right--in one moment," the lawyer replied. "Just put that----"
But Arthur saw that he had a cheque to pay in--he banked at Dean's but had clients' accounts with them--and he broke in on his business.
"Clement," he said, "here's Welsh. Just give him your father's message."
Clement came forward with his father's invitation--oysters and whist at five on Friday--and his opinion on a glass of '20 he was laying down? He kept the lawyer in talk for a minute or two, and then, as Arthur had shrewdly calculated, the door opened and Brownjohn slid in.
The man's face was red, and he looked heartily ashamed of himself, but he put down his notes on the counter. He was going to speak when, "In a moment, Brownjohn," Arthur said. "What is it, Mr. Welsh?"
"Just put this to the Hobdays' account," the lawyer answered recalled to his business. "Fifty-four pounds two shillings and five-pence. And, by the way, are you going to Garth on Saturday?"
"On Saturday, or Sunday, yes. Can I do anything for you!"
"Will you tell the Squire that that lease will be ready for signature on Saturday week. If you don't mind I'll send it over by you. It will save me a journey."
"Good. I'll tell him. He has been fretting about it. Good-day! Now, Mr. Brownjohn?"
"I'd like cash for these," the innkeeper mumbled, thrusting forward the notes, but looking thoroughly ill at ease.
"Man alive, why didn't you say so?" Arthur answered, good-humoredly, "and save yourself the trouble of two journeys? Mr. Rodd, cash for these, please. I've forgotten something I must tell Welsh!" And flinging the cash drawer wide open, he raised the counter-flap and hurried after the lawyer.
Rodd knew what was expected of him, and he took out several fistsful of gold and rattled it down before him. Rapidly, as if he handled so many peas, he counted out and thrust aside Mr. Brownjohn's portion, swiftly reckoned it a second time, then swept the balance back into the open drawer. "I think you'll find that right," he said. "Better count it. How's your little girl that was ailing, Mr. Brownjohn?"
Brownjohn muttered something, his face lighting up. Then he counted his gold and sneaked out, impressed, as Arthur had intended he should be, with his own unimportance, and more inclined than before to think that he had made a mistake in following Wolley's advice.
But before the bank closed that day two other customers came in and drew out the greater part of their balances. They were both men connected in one way or another with the clothier, and the thing stopped there. The following day was uneventful, but the drawings had been unusual, and the two young clerks might have exchanged notes upon the subject if their elders had not appeared so entirely unconscious.
As it was, it was impossible for them to think that anything out of the common had happened.
Worse, and far more important, than this matter was the fact that stocks and shares continued to fall all that week. Night after night the arrival of the famous "Wonder," the fast coach which did the journey from London in fifteen hours, was awaited by men who thought nothing of the wintry weather if they might have the latest news.
Afternoon after afternoon the journals brought by the mail were fought for and opened in the street by men whose faces grew longer as the week ran on. Some strode up jauntily, and joined themselves to the group of loungers before the coach-office, while others sneaked up privily, went no farther than the fringe of the crowd, and there, gravitating together by twos and threes, conferred in low voices over prices and changes. Some, until the coach arrived, lurked in a neighboring churchyard, raised above the street, and glancing suspiciously at one another affected to be immersed in the study of crumbling gravestones; while a few made a pretence of being surprised, as they passed, by the arrival of the mail, or hiding themselves in doorways appeared only at the last moment, and when they believed that they might do so unobserved.
One thing was noticeable of nearly all these; that they avoided one another's eyes, as if, declining to observe others, they became themselves unseen. Once possessed of the paper they behaved in different ways, according as they were of a sanguine or despondent nature. Some tore the sheet open at once, devoured a particular column and stamped or swore, or sometimes flung the paper underfoot. Others sneaked off to the churchyard or to some neighboring nook, and there, unable to wait longer, opened the journal with shaking fingers; while a few--and these perhaps had the most at stake--dared not trust themselves to learn the news where they might by any chance be overlooked, but hurried homewards through "shuts" and by-lanes, and locked themselves in their offices, afraid to let even their wives come near them.
For the news was very serious to very many; the more so as, inexperienced in speculation, they clung for the most part to the hope of a recovery, and could not bring themselves to sell at a lower figure than that which they might have got a week before. Much less could they bring themselves to sell at an actual loss. They had sat down to play a winning game, and they could not now believe that the seats were reversed, and that they were liable to lose all that they had gained, nay, in many cases much more than their stake. Amazed, they saw stocks falling, crumbling, nay, sinking to a nominal value, while large calls on them remained to be paid, and loans on them to be repaid. No wonder that they stared aghast, or that many after a period of stupefaction, at a state of things so new and so paralyzing, began to feel that it was neck or nothing with them, and bought when they should have sold, seeing that in any case the price to which stock was falling meant their ruin.
For a time indeed there was no public outcry and no great excitement on the surface. For a time men kept their troubles to themselves, jealous lest they should get abroad, and few suspected how common was their plight or how many shared it. Men talk of their gains but not of their losses, and the last thing desired by a business man on the brink of ruin is that his position should be made public. But those behind the scenes feared only the more for the morrow; for with this ferment of fear and suspense working beneath the surface it was impossible to say at what moment an eruption might not take place or where the ruin would stop. One thing was certain, that it would not be confined to the speculators, for many a sober trader, who had never bought shares in his life, would fail, beggared by the bankruptcy of his debtors.
Ovington returned on the Friday, and Arthur met him at the Lion, as he had met him eleven months before. They played their parts well--so well that even Arthur did not learn the news until the door of the bank had closed behind them and they were closeted with Clement in the dining-room. Then they learned that the news was bad--as bad as it could be.
The banker retained his composure and told his story with calmness, but he looked very weary. Williams'--Williams and Co. were Ovington's correspondents in London--would do nothing, he told them. "They would not re-discount a single bill nor hear of an acceptance. My own opinion is that they cannot."
Arthur looked much disturbed. "As bad as that," he said, "is it?"
"Yes, and I believe, nay, I am sure, lad, that they fear for themselves. I saw the younger Williams. He gave me good words, but that was all; and he looked ill and harassed to the last degree. There was a frightened look about them all. I told them that if they would re-discount fifteen thousand pounds of sound short bills, we should need no further help, and might by and by be able to help others.
But he would do nothing. I said I should go to the Bank. He let out--though he was very close--that others had done so, and that the Bank would do nothing. He hinted that they were short of gold there, and saw nothing for it but a policy of restriction. However, I went there, of course. They were very civil, but they told me frankly that it was impossible to help all who came to them; that they must protect their reserve. They were inclined to find fault, and said it was credit recklessly granted that had produced the trouble, and the only cure was restriction."
"But surely," Arthur protested, "where a bank is able to show that it is solvent?"
"I argued it with them. I told them that I agreed that the cure was to draw in, but that they should have entered on that path earlier; that to enter on it now suddenly and without discrimination after a period of laxity was the way to bring on the worst disaster the country had ever known. That to give help where it could be shown that moderate help would suffice, to support the sound and let the rotten go was the proper policy, and would limit the trouble. But I could not persuade them. They would not take the best bills, would in fact take nothing, discount nothing, would hardly advance even on government securities.
When I left them----"
"Yes?" The banker had paused, his face betraying emotion.
"I heard a rumor about Pole's."
"Pole's? Pole's!" Arthur cried, astounded; and he turned a shade paler. "Sir Peter Pole and Co.? You don't mean it, sir? Why, if they go scores of country banks will go! Scores! They are agents for sixty or seventy, aren't they?"
The banker nodded. His weariness was more and more apparent. "Yes, Pole's," he said gloomily. "And I heard it on good authority. The truth is--it has not extended to the public yet, but in the banks there is panic already. They do not know where the first crash will come, or who may be affected. And any moment the scare may spread to the public. When it does it will run through the country like wild-fire. It will be here in twenty-four hours. It will shake even Dean's. It will shake us down. My God! when I think that for the lack of ten or twelve thousand pounds--which a year ago we could have raised three times over with the stroke of a pen--just for the lack of that a sound business like this----"
He broke off, unable to control his voice. He could not continue.
Clement went out softly, and for a minute or so there was silence in the room, broken only by the ticking of the clock, the noise of wheels in the street, the voices of passers-by--voices that drifted in and died away again, as the speakers walked by on the pavement. Opposite the bank, at the corner of the Market Place, two dogs were fighting before a barber's shop. A woman drove them off with an umbrella. Her "Shoo! Shoo!" was audible in the silence of the room.
Before either spoke again, Clement returned. He bore a decanter of port, a glass, a slice of cake. "D'you take this, sir," he said. "You are worn out. And never fear," cheerily, "we shall pull through yet, sir. There will surely be some who will see that it will pay better to help us than to pull us down."
The banker smiled at him, but his hand shook as he poured out the wine. "I hope so," he said. "But we must buckle to. It will try us all. A run once started--have there been any withdrawals?"
They told him what had happened and described the state of feeling in the town. Rodd had been going about, gauging it quietly. He could do so more easily, and with less suspicion, than the partners. People were more free with him.
Ovington held his glass before him by the stem and looked thoughtfully at it. "That reminds me," he said, "Rodd had some money with us--three hundred on deposit, I think. He had better have it. It will make no difference one way or the other, and he cannot afford to lose it."
Arthur looked doubtful. "Three hundred," he said, "might make the difference."
"Well, it might, of course," the banker admitted wearily. "But he had better have it. I should not like him to suffer."
"No," Clement said. "He must have it. Shall I see to it now? The sooner the better."
No one demurred, and he left the room. When he had gone Arthur rose and walked to the window. He looked out. Presently he turned. "As to that twelve thousand?" he said. "That you said would pull us through?
Is there no way of getting it? Can't you think of any way, sir?"
"I am afraid not," Ovington answered, shaking his head. "I see no way.
I've strained our resources, I've tried every way. I see no way unless----"
"Yes, sir? Unless?"
"Unless--and I am afraid that there is no chance of that--your uncle could be induced to come forward and support us--in your interest."
Arthur laughed aloud, but there was no mirth in the sound. "If that is your hope, if you have any idea of that kind, sir," he said, "I am afraid you don't know him yet. I know nothing less likely."
"I am afraid that you are right. Still, your future is at stake. I am sorry that it is so, lad, but there it is. And if it could be made clear to him that he ran no risk?"
"But could it? Could it?"
"He would run no risk."
"But could he be brought to see that?" Arthur spoke sharply, almost with contempt. "Of course he could not! If you knew what his attitude is towards banks generally, and bankers, you would see the absurdity of it! He hates the very name of Ovington's."