"Indeed it is, your Grace. My Lord Dreddlington was the first from whom I heard anything on the subject."
"It's very odd I didn't see the paragraph! Where was it? In the Morning Growl?" continued the duke, with much agitation.
"It was, your Grace—it stated that Sir Sharper Bubble had suddenly absconded, with all the funds of"——
"Oh, the villain! oh, the villain!—But why do you make such scoundrels chairmen, and treasurers, and so forth? How must the loss be made good? You really don't look sharp enough after people whom you put into such situations! Who the deuce is this fellow—this Sir Bubble Sharper, or whatever he is called—eh?"
"He was greatly respected in the City, or would not have been in the position he was. Who could have suspected it?"
"And is the thing quite blown up? All gone?"
"Yes. I fear it is, indeed!" replied Gammon, shrugging his shoulders and sighing.
"Of course no one can be made liable—come the worst to the worst, eh?" inquired the duke, very anxiously, "beyond the amount of his shares? How's that, Mr. Gammon?"
"I devoutly trust not! Your Grace will observe that it depends a good deal on the prominence which any one takes in the affair."
"Egad! is that the principle? Then, I assure you, Mr. Gammon, upon my word of honor, that I have not taken the least public part in the proceedings"——