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surmounting in height those of Owen, and the other clerks, and only inferior to the tripod of my father himself. All was wrong from that moment. Dubourg’s reports became as suspicious as if his bills had been noted for dishonour. I was summoned home in all haste, and received in the manner I have already communicated to you.

CHAPTER II
    I begin shrewdly to suspect the young man of a terrible taint—Poetry; with which idle disease if he be infected, there’s no hope of him in a state course.
Actum est
of him for a commonwealth’s man, if he go to’t in rhyme once.
    Ben Jonson’s
Bartholomew Fair
    M Y father had, generally speaking, his temper under complete self-command, and his anger rarely indicated itself by words, except in a sort of dry testy manner, to those who had displeased him. He never used threats, or expressions of loud resentment. All was arranged with him on system, and it was his practice to do ‘the needful’ on every occasion, without wasting words about it. It was, therefore, with a bitter smile that he listened to my imperfect answers concerningthe state of commerce in France, and unmercifully permitted me to involve myself deeper and deeper in the mysteries of agio, tariffs, tare and tret; nor can I charge my memory with his having looked positively angry, until he found me unable to explain the exact effect which the depreciation of the louis d’or had produced on the negotiation of bills of exchange. ‘The most remarkable national occurrence in my time,’ said my father, (who nevertheless had seen the Revolution), ‘and he knows no more of it than a post on the quay!’
    â€˜Mr. Francis,’ suggested Owen, in his timid and conciliatory manner, ‘cannot have forgotten, that by an
arret
of the King of France, dated 1st May, 1700, it was provided that the
porteur,
within ten days after due, must make demand——’
    â€˜Mr. Francis,’ said my father, interrupting him, ‘will, I dare say, recollect for the moment any thing you are so kind as hint to him.—But, body o’ me! how Dubourg could permit him!—Hark ye, Owen, what sort of a youth is Clement Dubourg, his nephew there, in the office, the black-haired lad?’
    â€˜One of the cleverest clerks, sir, in the house; a prodigious young man for his time,’ answered Owen; for the gaiety and civility of the young Frenchman had won his heart.
    â€˜Ay, ay, I suppose
he
knows something of the nature of exchange. Dubourg was determined I should have one youngster at least about my hand who understood business; but I see his drift, and he shall find that I do so when he looks at the balance-sheet. Owen, let Clement’s salary be paid up to next quarter-day, and let him ship himself back to Bourdeaux in his father’s ship, which is clearing out yonder.’
    â€˜Dismiss Clement Dubourg, sir?’ said Owen, with a faltering voice.
    â€˜Yes, sir, dismiss him instantly; it is enough to have a stupid Englishman in the counting-house to make blunders, without keeping a sharp Frenchman there to profit by them.’
    I had lived long enough in the territories of the
Grand Monarque
to contract a hearty aversion to arbitrary exertion of authority, even if it had not been instilled into me with my earliest breeding; and I could not refrain from interposing, to prevent an innocent and meritorious young man from paying the penalty of having acquired that proficiency which my father had desired for me.
    â€˜I beg pardon, sir,’ when Mr. Osbaldistone had done speaking, ‘but I think it but just, that if I have been negligent of my studies, I should pay the forfeit myself. I have no reason to charge Monsieur Dubourg with having neglected to give me opportunities of improvement, however little I may have profited by them; and, with respect to Monsieur Clement Dubourg——’
    â€˜With respect to him, and to you, I shall take the measures which