Fanny, the Flower-Girl | Page 8

anxieties by running in debt. Do you not think so, sir?"
"Ma'am," said the old gentleman, sitting down, and resting his large
silver-topped stick between his knees, "it is of very little consequence
what I think; but if you wish to know this, I will tell you that I think
very well both of you and your little girl, who, as I have heard, for I
have made inquiries about you both, is a dependant on your bounty.
You have trained her up well, though I wouldn't praise the child to her
face; and so take as much tea as you like till you hear from me again,
and your grocer need be in no trouble about his bill."

So after the fat gentleman had made this rather bluff, but honest-
hearted speech, and poor Mrs. Newton had wept, and thanked him in
language that sounded more polite, the good old gentleman told her his
whole history.
He began the world very poor, and without relations able to assist him;
he was at last taken into the employment of a young merchant in the
city; he had a turn for business, and having been able to render some
important services to this young man, he was finally, to his own
surprise, and that of every one else, taken into partnership.
"During all this time," said he, "I was attached from my boyhood to the
daughter of the poor schoolmaster who first taught me to read; I would
not marry her while I was poor, for I thought that would be to make her
wretched instead of happy; but when I was taken into partnership I
thought my way was clear; I went off to Bethnal Green, and told Mary,
and our wedding-day was settled at once. Well, we were glad enough,
to be sure; but a very few days after, my partner called me into the
private room, and said he wanted to consult me. He seemed in high
spirits, and he told me he had just heard of a famous speculation, by
which we could both make our fortunes at once. He explained what it
was, and I saw with shame and regret, that no really honest man could
join in it: I told him so; I told him plainly I would have nothing to do
with it. You may think what followed; the deeds of partnership were
not yet signed, and in short, in two or three days more I found myself
poor Jack Walton again--indeed, poorer than I was before I was made
one of the firm of Charters and Walton, for I had lost my employment.
"Often and often I used to think that David said, he had never seen the
righteous forsaken; yet I was suffering while the unrighteous were
prospering. It was a sinful, and a self-righteous thought, and I was
obliged to renounce it; when, after some time of trial, a gentleman sent
for me--a man of wealth, and told me his son was going into business
on his own account; that he had heard of my character, and of the cause
of my leaving Mr. Charters; that he thought I would be just such a
steady person as he wished his son to be with. In short, I began with
him on a handsome salary; was soon made his partner; married Mary,
and had my snug house in the country. Mr. Charters succeeded in that
speculation; entered into several others, some of which were of a more
fraudulent nature, failed, and was ruined. He ran off to America, and no

one knows what became of him. I have left business some years. I
purchased a nice property in the country, built a Church upon it, and
have ever thanked God, who never forsakes those who wish to act
righteously.
"It pleased God to take all my sweet children from me--every state has
its trials--the youngest was just like your little flower-girl."
Mrs. Newton was much pleased with this story; she then told her own,
and little Fanny's. The fat gentleman's eyes were full of tears when she
ended; when he was going away he put another half-sovereign into her
hand, and saying, "The first was for the child," walked out of the house.
A short time afterwards, a clergyman came to see Mrs. Newton--she
was surprised; he sat and talked with her some time, and seemed
greatly pleased with her sentiments, and all she told him of herself and
Fanny. He then told her that he was the clergyman whom Mr. Walton,
on the recommendation of the bishop of the diocese, had appointed to
the church he had built; that Mr. Walton had sent him to see her, and
had told him, if he was satisfied with all he saw and heard, to invite