with the merchant, as the bride broke her’s with him. If you have a sweetheart, to whom you wish to make a present of some fine lace, I dare say,” continued the speaker, “he will let you have what he intended for the princess at half price.”
“Has the house of the Bute Kant failed, or does it still carry on business?”
“Some years ago it was tottering, but the Spanish Caravelles[1] have helped to prop it up so that it seems now likely to stand.”
Frank inquired after several other houses or persons, on whom he had demands, he learned that the most of them, who had in his father’s time stopped payment, were now floursihing, which confirmed his opinion, that a seasonable bankruptcy was a sure foundation for after prosperity. This news served to cheer up his spirits; he arranged his papers, and presented the old bills at their proper places. But he experienced from the people of Antwerp, the same treatment which his travelling fellow-
- ↑ The name of the Spanish ships, which traded in those times to America.
