In truth, Purcel, who had a kind of good-natured regard for the little man, felt a sensation of compassion for him, on witnessing the extraordinary distress under which he labored.
"I am sorry for this," said he, "for I really know not what is to be done, and, what is equally distressing, our prospects are not at all likely to improve." "You don't mean to say, Purcel, that circumstances are as bad as you report them--as bad--as desperate, I should say--and as ruinous ?" "I fear," said Purcel, "they go beyond the gloomiest and most desponding views you could take of them.

The conspiracy, for such we must term it, is, in point of fact, deepening down to the very foundations, if I may use the expression, of society.

Every day it is becoming more dangerous and alarming; but how it is to be checked or mitigated, or how we are to stand out of its way and avoid its consequences, heaven only knows, for I don't." "But, Purcel, my dear friend, what am I and my domestic establishment to do?
Good God! there is nothing but ruin before us! You know I always lived up to my income--indeed, at best, it was too limited for the demands of my family, and our habits of life.

And now, to have the very prop--the only one on which I leant--suddenly snapt from under me--it is frightful.

But you are to blame, Purcel; you are much to blame.