"Good Heavens! and you can speak of it so calmly!"
"Why not? To work myself into a frenzy will not help me. There are worse misfortunes."
"I cannot imagine them, Cohen. Ruined? Absolutely ruined?"
"Absolutely ruined," said Aaron, with a smile.
"And it was only yesterday that you were----"
He could not continue, and Aaron took up his words.
"It is only yesterday that I was on top of the tree. A dangerous height, Mr. Moss, but I must bear the fall. If, when they climb the ladder of fortune, men would but be careful to make the lower rungs secure! But prosperity makes them reckless. Do not look so mournful. Happiness is as easily found in poverty as in riches."
"It may be, after all, a false alarm," groaned Mr. Moss.
"Let us hope so. We will wait till to-morrow."
"Will you not go into the City now to ascertain whether it is true or false?"