“‘In such distress I had no avenue of escape save a reference to my honoured firm, the name of which, though distant, was familiar to the Court. The magistrate expressed his doubt that I had any connection with such important people, and asked me if I would risk the sending of a messenger to my so-called partners. I said I would do so gladly, but during the two days’ interval of the messenger’s absence I was closely confined in the public prison, where I regret to say the foreign merchant had the heartlessness to come and make faces at me through the bars, and where, having no money to give my gaolers, I was treated with the utmost harshness.
“‘My misfortunes were not at an end. As luck would have it the firm to which I belonged and of whose books I had the sole management, undertook a surprise audit on the very day of my departure, and discovered a most serious deficit in one item which the partners, in their ignorance, could not account for. Had I been present I could easily have explained what had happened. It was but an advance which I had made to a customer whose transactions with us were of the highest value. As much in my own interests as in those of my partners I was well justified in risking the money. I had acted foolishly perhaps in refusing to take a receipt or to enter the matter in the books, but the thing was only for a week and after so many years of prosperity I could not dream of so small a thing turning out untowardly. However, there it was. My partners hurriedly sent after me and learned to their dismay that I had left the first inn upon the road without payment, and giving no account of my future movements. They had sent a man post-haste on a swift horse. He had covered the distance to the port in twelve hours, but (as I was now in prison), could discover nothing of me in the town nor find any cargo I had bought or, indeed, any trace of me. He returned to my partners, as they had instructed him, upon another beast as swift (having sold his spent mount) and it was just as they received this grave news of my apparent absconding, just while my partners grew more and more convinced of my supposed guilt, that the messenger from the magistrate arrived and completed the accusation. They answered, not by coming in person, but by sending a letter of the most violent kind, calling me a notorious thief, expressing their pleasure that I had been laid by the heels and begging that, so far as they were concerned, the magistrate would not spare me in any punishment he might see fit to inflict for my other escapades. Meanwhile (they said) they would not trouble him to enter judgment for the sum I had taken, since they had replaced it out of my capital in the firm, which nearly, or exactly, made good the deficit.
“‘You may imagine, my Lord, the result of all this! The magistrate read the Court a sermon on the justice of the law which spared no man for his rank or commerce, and concluded, “You have before you the sad spectacle of a man of substance fallen through temptation into poverty and disgrace.” The foreign merchant contemptuously waived his action, the innkeeper with equal contempt expressed himself satisfied with the punishment I had already undergone, claiming only my clothes by way of payment, giving me these few rags in exchange. With yet another admonition the magistrate dismissed me. I went out from the court a broken man, wandered aimlessly southward, doing a little work here and there upon the farms, and I am now seeking the next village with the object of offering my services.
“‘Such, Sir,’ I concluded, ‘is my tale.... Here am I, with every commercial aptitude, and full training in the various transactions of business (but especially in the management of plantations) for no fault of my own unable to exercise these talents, rehabilitate my character, and recover my position in society.’
“The rich young man was deeply touched by my story, every word of which, I am glad to say, he seemed to believe; for I was not deceived in my reading of character and I had rightly guessed that a man under thirty, honest-faced and clearly enjoying leisure and wealth would be singularly open to the reception of any romantic tale that might be offered to him.
“‘It is indeed fortunate,’ he answered, ‘that you understand plantations. It is a matter in which I am for the moment interested. I have an orchard which is not doing well.’ He had evidently forgotten his first sentence on our meeting which had given me my clue. But rich and generous natures are like that in early youth: hence, also, are they bad players in games of skill.
“‘Come with me,’ he continued, ‘and pass the night in my house yonder’ (it already lay before us in the hollow); ‘the conversation on your past life, which is doubtless full of adventures, will entertain me at my meal. To-morrow I will see that you have occupation upon my farm, and after a short experiment I think we shall get along very well indeed together, particularly as I have recently planted by way of experiment a number of pear trees which—as I think I just told you—are not doing well. I thought myself able from my general knowledge to conduct this orchard, but I regret to say that some of the trees have died, and that the rest are in a poor way. I evidently lack the special experience required. Since plantations are your special line you may be of the greatest service to me in this little matter.’
“Here, my dear nephews, I was in something of a quandary. This, I am told, is a difficulty we men of affairs come across often enough in the conduct of our negotiations. It is our duty, as I need hardly tell you, to add details of a corroborative kind to the statements we have to make in affairs. To omit any detail is to court suspicion. On the other hand, one never knows where the most necessary fictions may lead one. Here I was confronted by the task of bringing to fruition an orchard ... an orchard of pears ... and I knew nothing whatever of orchards and of pears far less.
“I replied, therefore, with the greatest enthusiasm that the opportunity was exactly what I should have desired. Orchards were the one kind of plantation I had most carefully studied, and of all fruits pears were those upon which I had specialised most. Once I had seen the kind of tree my kind host had planted I should certainly be able to tell him what was the matter.
“It was almost dark when we came to his enclosure, but so eager was he on his new idea that he led me at once to the back of the house where the trees were planted. Very sickly indeed did their gaunt twigs look in the gloaming. A good third of them were shrivelled and dead, the rest drooped in various degrees, one only gave a promise of fruit out of some three hundred stems. The rich man surveyed the ruin and gazed at me anxiously while I held my chin in my hand as though meditating upon the best course for him to pursue, but in reality considering my own.