been learned by those who have a tendency to ‘consider the poor.’
sat in a small back-office, working so diligently that one might have supposed he was endeavouring to But although the neighbourhood bring up the arrears of forty years’ was dirty and noisy, our modest neglect, and had pledged himself street, which was at that time known to have it done before dinner. by the name of Redwharf Lane, He was particularly small, excessively was comparatively clean and quiet. thin, very humble, rather deaf, True, the smell of tallow and tar and upwards of sixty. Company had could not be altogether excluded, died of lockjaw two years previous neither could the noises; but these to the period of which we write, scents and sounds reached it in a and is therefore unworthy of farther mitigated degree, and as the street notice. A confidential clerk had was not a thoroughfare, few people taken, and still retained, his place. entered it, except those who had business there, or those who had ‘He was particularly lost their way, or an occasional street small, excessively thin, boy of an explorative tendency; very humble, rather deaf, which last, on finding that it was a quiet spot, invariably entered a and upwards of sixty.’ protest against such an outrageous idea as quietude in ‘the City’ by Messrs. Denham, Crumps, and sending up a series of hideous yells, Company, were shipowners. and retiring thereafter precipitately. Report said that they were rich, but report frequently said what was not Here, in Redwharf Lane, was the true in those days. Whether it has office of the firm of Denham, become more truthful in the present Crumps, and Company. days, remains an open question. There can be no question, however, Mr Denham stood with his back that much business was done at the to the fire, for it was a coldish office in Redwharf Lane, and that, autumn day, with his coat-tails while Denham lived in a handsome under his arms. He was a big mansion in Russell Square, bald man of five-and-forty, with and Crumps dwelt in a sweet cottage self-importance enough for a man of in Kensington, Company had kept five-hundred-and-forty. Mr Crumps a pony phaeton, and had died in
a snug
35