The Freemason's Daughter: A Novel — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4 THE FREEMASONS DAUGHTER. locale, on which the sun, as if ashamed of the merce- nary spirit of its inhabitants, seldom deigned to shine ; in fact, it was only at its meridian that its beams could penetrate between the tall black roofs and smoky gables. The firm of Grindem and Company, in which Richard Lawrence was a junior clerk, was one of the oldest established houses in Manchester ; its signature was as good as a Bank of England note on the Exchange, although some hinted that its transactions were not always of the fairest character. The partners were even benevolent in their way—ever ready to assist their embarrassed correspondents, by purchasing at forty per cent under. cost the consignments, for which, by a strange fatality, they seldom found a market till they had exchanged the character of agent for owner, when, by a coincidence equally strange, the articles in question were sure to rise in demand. It is true that their cor- respondents, as soon as they could emancipate them- selves from their ruinous agency, did so; and many a rising firm found itself crippled for years by their early connection with the house of Grindem and Small ; but, as the latter used to say, while rubbing his hands over an account wound up, “ God prospers the industrious ;” and the firm of Grindem and Small was very tndus- trious. Gilbert Grindem, the head of the establishment, was a bachelor, in the sixtieth year of his age. When young he was far too prudent to marry ; a wife, he used COniiclooecl SS (SO mn