He already beheld his debts paid—his mind freed from pecuniary anxieties—and his speculations prospering in a manner giving assurance of the realization of a splendid fortune; and these pleasing visions, with which his imagination had cheered itself during the drive from the Cottage to the attorney's office, naturally tended to bestow on his countenance the expansiveness of good humour.
And, after all, it is a pleasant thing to enter a place where one is about to receive a good round sum of money, even though the amount will not remain long in pocket, but must be paid away almost as soon as fingered.
Mr. Torrens had never felt more independent than he did on this occasion; and the look which he bestowed upon a poor beggar-woman with a child in her arms, as he ascended the steps leading to the front-door of Mr. Howard's abode, was one of supreme contempt—as if a pauper were indeed a despicable object!
Well—Mr. Torrens entered the office with a smiling countenance:—but he was immediately struck by the strange aspect of things which there presented itself.
The place was in confusion. The clerks were gathered together in a group near the window, looking particularly gloomy, and conversing in whispers;—several gentlemen were busily employed in examining the japanned boxes which bore their names and contained their title-deeds;—and two or three females were weeping in a corner, and exchanging such dimly significant observations as—"Oh! the rascal!"—"The villain!"—"To rob us poor creatures!"
Mr. Torrens recoiled, aghast and speechless, from the contemplation of this alarming scene. A chill struck to his heart: and, in common parlance, any one might have knocked him down with a straw.
"Good heavens! gentlemen," he exclaimed, at length recovering the use of his tongue: "what is the meaning of this?"
"Ask those youngsters there, sir," said one of the individuals engaged in examining the tin-boxes: and the speaker pointed towards the clerks in a manner which seemed to imply that the news were too shocking for him to unfold, and that it was moreover the duty of the lawyer's subordinates to give the required information.
"Well, gentlemen, what is the matter?" demanded Mr. Torrens, turning to the clerks. "Has any thing sudden happened to Mr. Howard?"
"Oh! very sudden indeed, sir," was the answer vouchsafed by one of the persons thus appealed to, and accompanied by a sinister grin.