Here, sir, and gents," says I, "you have the whole of the history as far as regards me.

In order to get her only son a means of livelihood, my mother placed her little money with the Company--it is lost.

My aunt invested larger sums with it, which were to have been mine one day, and they are lost too; and here am I, at the end of four years, a disgraced and ruined man.

Is there anyone present, however much he has suffered by the failure of the Company, that has had worse fortune through it than I ?" "Mr.Titmarsh," says Mr.Commissioner, in a much more friendly way, and at the same time casting a glance at a newspaper reporter that was sitting hard by, "your story is not likely to get into the newspapers; for, as you say, it is a private affair, which you had no need to speak of unless you thought proper, and may be considered as a confidential conversation between us and the other gentlemen here.

But if it _could_ be made public, it might do some good, and warn people, if they _will_ be warned, against the folly of such enterprises as that in which you have been engaged.