He was an elderly man with a large family, and the lost ten shillings would make a difference to the Sunday dinner.

There was nothing for it but to bow to the inevitable, and his little pinched face assumed an expression of gentle resignation.

How to keep his ten young subordinates in order, however, was a problem which vexed him sorely.
The junior partner was silent, and the remaining clerks were working uneasily, not exactly knowing whether they might not presently be included in the indictment.

Their fears were terminated, however, by the sharp sound of a table-gong and the appearance of a boy with the announcement that Mr.Girdlestone would like a moment's conversation with Mr.Ezra.

The latter gave a keen glance at his subjects and withdrew into the back office, a disappearance which was hailed by ten pens being thrown into the air and deftly caught again, while as many derisive and triumphant young men mocked at the imploring efforts of old Gilray in the interests of law and order.
The sanctum of Mr.John Girdlestone was approached by two doors, one of oak with ground-glass panels, and the other covered with green baize.
The room itself was small, but lofty, and the walls were ornamented by numerous sections of ships stuck upon long flat boards, very much as the remains of fossil fish are exhibited in museums, together with maps, charts, photographs, and lists of sailings innumerable.