His affairs were wound up in about a week ; every
tittle of his interest in the great firm of Branksome and
Co., of which he was the head, disposed of; his con-
nexion with all his former associates entirely cut off;
and never, to my knowledge, did he receive, or at least



CHANGE FOR GOLD. 11

reply to, a single business communication of any sort
or kind for the remaining five years of his life. He
came from his city-home a stem, almost morose old
man ; whom his family had never seen from breakfast-
time to dinner all his days, whose talk had been of
stock, and whose thought had been of stock from youth
to hoary age ; and from the hour of his arrival in the
valley, he never missed a meal with us, until his last
sad illness ; nor ever read a column of " Money-Market"
and "City Intelligence" again. He took myself (his
eldest son James), and Charles, my brother — ^youths of
twelve and eleven years of age — a mountain-walk soon
after sunrise throughout the summer, with a more
sprightly step than ever left the Stock Exchange : his
conversation was as that of a boy to boys, and that not
gradually and induced, as might have been expected
by a novel life, fresh air, and genial exercise — ^but at
once ; and so it remained for ever.
