CHAPTER V--A HELPING HAND
'Though hawks can prey through storms and winds,
The poor bee in her hive must dwell.'
HENRY VAUGHAN.
In imagination the piteous dejection of our family seems to have
lasted for ages, but on comparison of dates it is plain that the
first lightening of the burthen came in about a fortnight's time.
The firm of Frith and Castleford was coming to the front in the
Chinese trade. The junior partner was an old companion of my
father's boyhood; his London abode was near at hand, and he was a
kind of semi-godfather to both Clarence and me, having stood proxy
for our nominal sponsors. He was as good and open-hearted a man as
ever lived, and had always been very kind to us; but he was scarcely
welcome when my father, finding that he had come up alone to London
to see about some repairs to his house, while his family were still
in the country, asked him to dine and sleep--our first guest since
our misfortune.
My mother could hardly endure to receive any one, but she seemed
glad to see my father become animated and like himself while Roman
Catholic Emancipation was vehemently discussed, and the ruin of
England hotly predicted. Clarence moped about silently as usual,
and tried to avoid notice, and it was not till the next morning--
after breakfast, when the two gentlemen were in the dining-room,
nearly ready to go their several ways, and I was in the window
awaiting my classical tutor--that Mr.
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