Oh, what a happy time it was! The spring wind went about the woods in gentle murmurs, as if it were saying so in every nook and corner. “How are you, old friend?” it seemed to say every now and then, as it rustled the young leaves of an oak or an elm--“glad to see you looking so well--pleasant day;” and the trees seemed to nod and look happy, and congratulate each other that the south wind had come again, and the ash trees shook their jangling locks with delight. Everything seemed to say the winter is over, and we are glad of it and sure of it. The frogs croaked by the margin of the lake, and the crows replied as they winged their way over them up into the elms that glassed themselves in the deep. Bees hummed musically in the air, and darted into the midst of great yellow buttercups as if in very wantonness of joy. What a happy time it was! Everything seemed to say so--birds and trees and hills and fields. There was a general jubilation of Nature, such as the Psalmist might have had in his mind when he sang, “Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord.” Happy days! Why do we dwell upon them? It is not easy to close any page which has spring sunshine in it. We have all of us so many dear, treasured associations with it, bringing us back to the spring-time of life when the world looked so hopeful and charming--when there were flowers of love and friendship in our paths, and we knew nothing of the thorns that lurked beneath them. CHAPTER XV. FINANCE AND “FINESSE.” The spring did not bring happy days with it in the city of London. The south wind had no influence on that financial storm which had not yet subsided. It brought no comfort to unhappy speculators and tottering houses of trade. The city sparrows shambled from under the eaves, and rolled themselves in the dust of the great city, and street boys whistled merrily along the hard pavements; but great merchants held down their heads, directors of companies hurried to and fro with great secrets in their hearts that troubled them sorely; countrymen stared vacantly up at offices and banks that were closed and marked “To Let.” The genius of finance, and not spring, had full possession of the City, and he was tormenting it with panic fiends and imps of all kinds.