"When my troubles came on, I owed Hurst a large sum of money; and the circumstances under which I became his debtor rendered this peculiarly a debt of honour. He lent it me when he could ill spare it; yet he is the only one of all my creditors who has not in one way or other persecuted me to the present hour. When he first knew of my wreck, he called upon menot to reproach but to encourage meand he would not leave me till he felt sure that he had changed the moody current of my thoughts. If there be any change in him since then, it is in his increased kindness of manner and his assiduity to serve me. He is now gone out to try to sell 'a bit of daub' for me."
Hurst came in, and this conversation dropped; but it had been well had Hurst been by his side on the day his last picture was opened to view at the Egyptian Hall. The catastrophe of that night might have been averted, notwithstanding Mr. Barnum and his Tom Thumb show in the adjoining room.
2
The printed copy has Trinity College.