Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1877-09-08
''CO." Is "
CHAPTER I.

Dart, Maitland, Dart & Co."
So the name stood upon the great
brass plate ; and in these names had the
business of the bank been prudently and
proftably conducted for as many years
as the majority of the inhabitants of
marlborough could recall.
Trade panics had laid waste many
another established firm bank
ruptcy had swooped unexpectedly upon
many house where wealth had seemed
as limitless as here but the bank of
Messrs. Dart, Maitland, Dart & Co. held
its head high above all treacherous
waters, and stood unmoved and utterly
secure after the heaviest gales had
passed.
The name of the firm was passport
of trust and reliance, as we'll was
prompt introduction to the first society
of the country and the present repre-
sentatives were these Maurice Dart,
the senior partner, handsome man of
tifty-three years, who imagined the
wishes, the weaknesses, and the hopes
peculiar to other men, could not move
him now and Walter Maitland, both in
appearance and manner, strong con-
trast to his senior partner. Though but
ten years younger, he looked nearer
thirty than, forty, and the frankness of
his blue eyes, and the gay words so
prompt upon his lips, seemed doubly
frank and doubly gay, contrasted with
his seniors reticence and gravity. . The
third partner was one in name alone.
His fathel o death had left him rich
share iii The bank, but his only inter-
course with it was the polite periodical
acknowledgment of its having swept
away the debts. which were the worst
enemies he had had to fioht since he
entered the army. About the "Co."
there was, of course, that vagueness
which is inseparable from the cognomen.
In the outer world it was supposed that
an unlimited number of people had in
vested their savings or THEN patrimony
on purpose to be considered "of the
firm" But among the clerks only one
case was known with certainty. He was
neither the Oldest nor the most ex-
perienced, though the most cheerful,
perhaps, and the most Industrious. He
had deposited in the firm the sum which
his father, through a forty years course
of valued and profitable managership,
had accumulated to bequeath to him
and so, being enabled to draw what
doubled his salary as clerk. Tom Leslie
looked upon himself as a partner of no
mean order, but built lofty castles for a
time when his name should stand upon
the brass plate otherwise than as "Co. u
Cheerfully and constantly he erected
these edifices but to attempt to lay
their foundations on terra frnad, either
by saving or speculating, never entered
Toms head. With his mother-a little
old lady, as hopeful, and cheerful, and
trustful as he was hint olf-Tom lived in
a pretty white cottage eyond the town
and here he had flowers all the veal
round, and birds, that sang in the
gloomiest weather, and piano on which
he was no mean performer. And as
regularly as Saturday morning came
around, Tom, taking his hat, would say
in the most natural manner
"I think we should like couple o.
the younger fellows out to dinner to
morrow-shouldn't we, mother? Theil
salaries are not like mine; and things ar,
dear, you say"
True, their salaries were not like his, bu
then he would not have the small, brjgh
house, nor the small, bright mother, de
MED any comfort he could think of. an,
80 there was never one penny of Tom
salary left when the year was up.
Once or twice Mrs. Leslie would in
quire ruefully where her son picked u
the dinnerless clerks whom he delighte
to bring home to superior, as he a