"
"I come on other matters. There have been transactions between us,
Alderman Van Beverout, that you little understand."
"You speak of a small mistake in the last invoice?--'Tis all explained,
Master Skimmer, on a second examination; and thy accuracy is as well
established as that of the bank of England."
"Established or not, let him who doubts cease to deal.--I have no other
motto than 'confidence,' nor any other rule but 'justice.'"
"You overrun my meaning, friend of mine. I intimate no suspicions; but
accuracy is the soul of commerce, as profit is its object. Clear accounts,
with reasonable balances, are the surest cements of business intimacies. A
little frankness operates, in a secret trade, like equity in the courts;
which reestablishes the justice that the law has destroyed.--What is thy
purpose?"
"It is now many years, Alderman Van Beverout, since this secret trade was
commenced between you and my predecessor,--he, whom you have thought my
father, but who only claimed that revered appellation by protecting the
helplessness and infancy of the orphan child of a friend."
"The latter circumstance is new to me;" returned the burgher, slowly
bowing his head. "It may explain certain levities which have not been
without their embarrassment. 'Tis five-and-twenty years, come August,
Master Skimmer, and twelve of them have been under thy auspices. I will
not say that the adventures might not have been better managed; as it is,
they are tolerable.
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