of sea-fights, he used to dress himself up as the old gentleman, and

entertain other little boys and girls with cake and wine.

In the year 1840 the thirty-seven were all alive; in 1850 their number

had decreased by six; in 1856 and 1857 business was more lively, for the

Crimea and the Mutiny carried off no less than nine. There remained

in 1870 but five of the original members, and at the date of my story,

including the two Finsburys, but three.

By this time Masterman was in his seventy-third year; he had long

complained of the effects of age, had long since retired from business,

and now lived in absolute seclusion under the roof of his son Michael,

the well-known solicitor. Joseph, on the other hand, was still up and

about, and still presented but a semi-venerable figure on the streets

in which he loved to wander. This was the more to be deplored because

Masterman had led (even to the least particular) a model British life.

Industry, regularity, respectability, and a preference for the four per

cents are understood to be the very foundations of a green old age. All

these Masterman had eminently displayed, and here he was, ab agendo, at

seventy-three; while Joseph, barely two years younger, and in the most

excellent preservation, had disgraced himself through life by idleness

and eccentricity. Embarked in the leather trade, he had early wearied

of business, for which he was supposed to have small parts. A taste for

general information, not promptly checked, had soon begun to sap his

manhood. There is no passion more debilitating to the mind, unless,

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