He lost no time when he arrived in town, but made the best of his way to his well-known resort, and found his kind accommodating friend at home, but wearing an altered countenance. Heavy complaints were heard, and gloomy looks were seen, and it was altogether impossible just at that unfortunate crisis to afford any accommodation.--“That was the unkindest cut of all.”
Very properly resenting this insult, he speedily left the house; and being guided by his own knowledge as well as by the reports of others, he hastened to bestow his patronage on another of the same profession. But the Hon. Philip Martindale of Brigland Abbey was not, it appeared, at that time a name in high repute with that class of gentry who observe the strictest honor and secrecy in their transactions; and he had the mortification to find that his journey to London had been of no avail, and was not likely to be productive of any thing beneficial. Some people would, under these circumstances, have been disgusted with the world, and have retired to a hermitage, thinking that all their fellow-creatures were so worthless and unprincipled as not to be worth noticing or fit to live with. But happily in this instance for the Hon. Philip Martindale, he was not so easily disgusted with the world; he was under great obligations to it, and hoped to be under more. It is certainly a very pleasant thing to have a good opinion of oneself, but it is pleasanter to have that opinion positively than comparatively; and to quarrel with all the world at once is no great proof either of wisdom or virtue. Besides, Mr. Philip knew that half a dozen tradesmen, and half as many money-lenders, were not all the world.
The old proverb concerning misfortunes not coming singly, seemed to be about to be verified in the case of Philip Martindale; for as he was thoughtfully pacing the streets of the great city, and thinking of the various ills of life, and wondering how it should come to pass that a gentleman called the honorable, and residing in a magnificent mansion, and being heir-apparent to a title, and being nearly related to and a great favorite of a person of enormous wealth, should not be comfortable and satisfied in his own feelings as one residing in an inn of court, and giving much of his days to the dry study of the law. As he was thus meditating with himself, and communing with his own thoughts, he was roused from his reverie by the sound of the well-known voice of old John Martindale; for the old gentleman had just left the Bank at the moment that his cousin was passing it. With no very pleasant feeling did Philip return the old gentleman’s greeting.