The Argosy — page 259: what you’re looking at

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240 Five Thousand a Year. “No. Iam going to call upon him when I go back to the City. He can do nothing.” “T’ll go with you,” said Mr. Grainger. ‘‘We must stir heaven and earth about this. It would be desperation for it to fail now.” ‘And a debtor’s gaol and the Bankruptcy Court, after it,” spluttered Little. | Adam Grainger’s face flushed hot, and he passed his handkerchief over it. The face grew hotter and hotter. ‘Better set on and hang ourselves than stand that,” added Little, as they went out. IV. You remember those two remarkable plates in the book of “ Martin _Chuzzlewit?” The wondrous city of Eden as it appeared in print, and the wondrous city of Eden as it proved in reality. You remember Martin’s rapture, his uplifted hands and eyes when reverently contem- plating the public buildings in the picture; his indignation at Mark Tapley’s somewhat suspicious remark, ‘‘ Perhaps they growed sponta- nous?” Just what that flourishing city of Eden, in pnt, was to the enraptured mind of Martin Chuzzlewit, had the great Trebeddon mining scheme been to Adam Grainger ; and just what the city proved to be when the two expectant travellers reached it—a feverish swamp, a wild ruin—had the Great Trebeddon Mines faded to now. But did even this effect the cure, and serve to open the eyes of Mr. Grainger? Notit. Not yet. If he had had ten thousand pounds at his command, he would still have thrown it-into the yawning gulf. But he had not the ten thousand No, nor ten pounds. Need you be told the sequel? The Great Trebeddon Mines proved a failure. Whether from want of copper and tin, or from want of capital to disembowel them, is of no consequence here; they failed, and ruin overtook many who had connected themselves with them. The most perfect ruin fell upon Adam Grainger. Christmas passed quietly, and then all the ill came rushing on at once. The bills he had accepted became due, and he was sued upon them; the report of the failure of the mines flew about far and wide; the landlord paid him a visit in the peculiar fashion loved by landlords, and all the tradespeople came down upon him together. And soon, worse than all, Mrs. Grainger had to © battle out her trials alone, as she best could, for her husband was taken to cool his ardour within the walls of the Queen’s Bench prison. He had better have kept to his twelve hundred a year! But we have not done with him yet, Eomicbooks.com