"Take notice, owing to the fact that a run has begun on the
Daneford Bank, the offices of that Bank will be opened every
morning at eight instead of nine, and will be closed at seven
instead of four p.m., until this run has ceased.
"HENRY WALTER GREY."
This circular was town talk the next day. The admirers of Wat were more
enthusiastic than ever in their praises of his boldness and wisdom. This
circular killed the panic, and on Saturday of the same week the drawings
had shrunk back to an average. Yet for another week the Bank was kept
open from eight in the morning till seven in the evening.
On Monday, the 9th of July, a second circular was issued from the Bank,
saying that as the run had ceased for a week the office hours for the
future would be as of old, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
But, although the run had ceased, upwards of thirty thousand pounds had
been withdrawn, and only five thousand found its way back again, and
that was decidedly bad. The Bank was not in the least jeopardy. Sir
Alexander Midharst's half a million had saved it; but the baronet's
money was not only not returning, but the balance of it in hand began
to run low.
Notwithstanding all this business pressure and the perilous position in
which Grey stood, no one could detect in his face or manner a clue to
the anxiety which consumed him. Still he was the same joyous companion,
the same jovial host, the same considerate employer, the same liberal
patron.
To his mother he displayed the best view of his position. He showed her
how the steamship business had fallen in to him because he was in funds
and could give accommodation beyond the power of his local rival. He
admitted the loss in London, but pointed out how the loss and the run,
taken together, must end in great advantage to his Bank.
She heard not only his story, but, from all who spoke to her on the
subject, congratulations upon the Bank's position and his great
prudence and good sense. He told her the money from Boston had not only
saved him, but had so improved his resources that the Bank was now in
fully as good a position as at any time during his father's lifetime.
Hard as the business affairs of Mr. Grey pressed upon him, and difficult
as he felt the burden, they were not all the troubles he had to endure.
In order to prevent bankruptcy he had committed fraud. Up to this time
he had carried on that fraud without exciting a hint of suspicion. The
man whose money he had appropriated to his own use not only felt no
misgivings as to the safety of his vast hoard, but had recently lavished
upon him, Grey, the last proofs of implicit confidence when placing
practically all that fortune and the care of the heiress in his hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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