But things did not come to this pass all at once; few men take the steps towards ruin so rapidly as to be themselves alarmed by it.

It was nearly seven years after his marriage when the fact that he was in dangerously embarrassed circumstances forced itself suddenly on David's mind.

I say "suddenly" here, because the consummation of evil that has been long preparing comes at last in a moment; a string holding a picture gets weaker and weaker through weeks of tension, and then breaks.

A calamity through nights and days moves slowly towards us step by step, and then some hour it has come.

So it was with David's business.