for the first time informed that the Bank must decline to discount his bills!  The announcement is usually received as smilingly as it is made.  ’It is a matter of very slight consequence, etcetera;’ but if you had been near enough, you might have noticed, as the clerk did, the quiver of the lip beneath that sickly smile, and that the face was as white as the rejected paper the merchant’s trembling fingers were replacing in his pocket-book.  And no wonder that he should be thus agitated, for the refusal has, he well knew, thrust him down the first steps of the steep and slippery descent, at the bottom of which lies bankruptcy—­ruin!  But these are ordinary downfalls, by the wrecks of which the busy haunts of commercial enterprise are paved; and we have other places to look in at.  Before leaving the Bank, however, let us step a few paces to the left of the chief entrance.  Now who would believe that in the very midst of this Mammon-temple, where space is of incalculable value, a large plot of greensward should have been jealously preserved, from which spring two fine elms, that from out the heat and turmoil of the place lift up their fresh leaves to the sky—­bright, waving leaves, that as often as the sun kisses them, laugh out in sparkling triumph over the heated, anxious, jaded toilers and schemers below?  Yet so it is.

Again in Threadneedle Street, and turning to the left, we reach, at the termination of the Bank-front, Bartholomew Lane, famous for nothing that I am aware of, save Capel Court, situate at about the centre, on the right-hand side.  At the end of Capel Court is the Stock-Exchange, within whose sacred precincts subscribers only, and their clerks, may enter—­a regulation strictly enforced by the liveried guardian at the door.  But you can hear enough of the stentorian gabble going on within where we now are.  Hark!  ’A thousand pounds’ consols at 96-3/4-96-1/2.’  ’Take ’em at 96-1/4,’ is the vociferous reply of a buyer.  ’Mexican at 27-1/2-27; Portuguese fours at 32-7/8-32-1/2; Spanish fives at 21; Dutch two-and-halfs at 50-1/2-50-1/4:’  and so roars on the distracting Babel till the hour for closing strikes.  Much of this business is no doubt legitimate—­the bona fide sale and purchase of stock by the brokers, for which they charge their clients the very moderate commission of 2s. 6d. per L.100.  The ruinous gambling of the Stock-Exchange is another matter, and is chiefly carried on by ‘time’ bargains—­a sham-business, managed in this way:—­A nominally buys of B L.100,000 worth of stock in consols, to be delivered at a fixed price, say 96, on the next settling-day.  It is plain that if the market-price of consols shall have fallen, by the day named, to 94, B wins L.2000—­the difference between L.100,000 estimated at 96 and 94 per cent.  A must pay these L.2000, or, which amounts to the same thing, receive from B consols to the amount of L.100,000 at 96, that in reality are procurable at 94.  It is simply and entirely a gambling bet