"I wish you could, Dotty." Hugh felt rather wistful: he would not see his baby sister again for years. She would be changed when he returned. She would understand time zones.
September rain drummed on the windows, and down in the bay the wind lashed the waves, but here there was a coal fire and a soft hearth-rug. Hugh packed a handful of books: Modern Business Methods, The Successful Commercial Clerk, The Wealth of Nations, Robinson Crusoe. The older clerks at Pilasters Bank were contemptuous of what they called "book-learning," and were fond of saying that experience was the best teacher, but they were wrong: Hugh had been able to understand the workings of the different departments much more quickly because he had studied the theory beforehand.
He was going to America at a time of crisis. In the early 1870s several of the banks had made large loans on the security of speculative railway stocks, and when railway construction ran into trouble in the middle of 1873 the banks started to look shaky. A few days ago Jay Cooke & Co., the agents of the American government, had gone bust, dragging the First National Bank of Washington down with them; and the news had reached London the same day via the transatlantic telegraph cable. Now five New York banks had suspended business, including the Union Trust Company--a major bank--and the old-established Mechanics' Banking Association. The Stock Exchange had closed its doors. Businesses would fall, thousands of people would be thrown out of work, trade would suffer, and Pilasters' American operation would get smaller and more cautious--so that it would be harder for Hugh to make his mark.
So far the crisis had had little impact in London. The bank rate had gone up a point, to four percent, and a small London bank with close American links had failed, but there was no panic. All the same, old Seth insisted there was trouble ahead. He was quite weak now. He had moved into Augusta's house and spent most days in bed. But he stubbornly refused to resign until he had steered Pilasters through the storm.
Hugh began to fold his clothes. The bank had paid for two new suits: he had a suspicion his mother had persuaded his grandfather to authorize that. Old Seth was as tight-fisted as the rest of the Pilasters but he had a soft spot for Hugh's mother; in fact it was the small allowance Seth gave her that she had been living on all these years.
