The junior partner was still holding the book when a heavy step was heard in the entry. Fanny’s eyes grew darker and the frown deeper. There was a blundering movement outside—a hat fell—a cane struck something—and Gabriel knew as perfectly as if he could look through the wall what kind of man was coming. The door opened with a burst, and Mr. Alfred Dinks stopped as his eye fell upon the company. A heavy, coarse, red-faced, dull-eyed man, with an air of brutish obstinacy in every lineament and movement, he stared for a moment without a word or sign of welcome, and then looking at his wife, said, in a grunting, surly tone,
“Look here; don’t be fooling round. The old man’s bust up!”
He banged the door violently to, and they heard his clumsy footsteps creaking up the stairs.
CHAPTER LX. — POLITICS.
“In course; I sez to ma—why, Lord bless me, it must have been three or four years ago—that ‘twould all turn out so. What’s rotten will come to pieces, ma, sez I. Every year she sez to me, sez she, why ain’t the Newts failed yet? as you said they was going to. Jest you be quiet, sez I, ma, it’s comin’. So ‘twas. I know’d all about it.”
President Van Boozenberg thus unburdened his mind and justified his vaticinations to the knot of gentlemen who were perpetually at the bank. They listened, and said ah! and yes, and shook their heads; and the shaky ones wondered whether the astute financier had marked them and had said to ma, sez he, that for all they looked so bright and crowded canvas so smartly, they are shaky, ma—shaky.
General Belch heard the news at his office. He was sitting on the end of his back-bone, which was supported on the two hind legs of a wooden chair, while the two fore legs and his own were lifted in the air. His own, however, went up at a more precipitate angle and rested with the feet apart upon the mantle. By a skillful muscular process the General ejected tobacco juice from his mouth, between his legs, and usually lodged it in the grate before him. It was evident, however, that many of his friends had not been so successful, for the grate, the hearth, and the neighboring floor were spotted with the fluid.
The Honorable Mr. Ele was engaged in conversation with his friend Belch, who was giving him instructions for the next Congressional session.