Undy had noble ideas about this bridge.

The shares at the present moment were greatly at a discount--so much the better, for they could be bought at a cheaper rate; and they were sure to rise to some very respectable figure as soon as Undy should have played out with reference to them the parliamentary game which he had in view.
And so from morning to morning, and from night to night, they talked over their unholy trade till the price of shares and the sounds of sums of money entered into Alaric's soul.

And this, perhaps, is one of the greatest penalties to which men who embark in such trade are doomed, that they can never shake off the remembrance of their calculations; they can never drop the shop; they have no leisure, no ease; they can never throw themselves with loose limbs and vacant mind at large upon the world's green sward, and call children to come and play with them.

At the Weights and Measures Alaric's hours of business had been from ten to five.

In Undy's office they continued from one noon till the next, incessantly; even in his dreams he was working in the share market.
On his return to town Alaric found a letter from Captain Cuttwater, pressing very urgently for the repayment of his money.
It had been lent on the express understanding that it was to be repaid when Parliament broke up.