at a lakh of rupees. He had himself been spending nearly a thousand rupees a month, and was besides heavily in debt to several banks and money-lenders. For some months past, indeed, the firm had only been kept going by a variety of shifts: now the fair bark of outward respectability was altogether swamped. It was impossible to keep up appearances any longer, and it soon became notorious that John and Company had failed. The Saheb went off with his wife to Chandernagore, a place under French rule, to which, even to this day, debtors and criminals betake themselves to escape imprisonment. The money lenders and other creditors thereupon came down upon Matilall. Look where he would, Matilall could see no way out of his difficulties: he had not a single pice he could call his own: he had been living entirely on credit. He could come to no decision one way or the other at this juncture. He was constantly on the look out for a visit from Bancharam Babu or Thakchacha, but "confidence in a dear friend is as a knife in the left hand" says an old proverb: it was idle to look for any aid from them: they had vanished before the smash.
When the creditors were referred to them they only answered that all the accounts were in Mati Babu's name: they had had no dealings with the others, regarding them as agents only. Owing to all this confusion in his affairs, Matilall fled one night in disguise with his companions to Vaidyabati. The people of that place, when the news reached them of the outcome of Matilall's trade enterprises, all clapped their hands, and cried: "This is grand news: there is still justice on the earth[52]: what meaning would the terms right and wrong have, if such a fate had not befallen so wicked a man,-- a man who has cheated mother, brother, and sister,-- a man to whom no sinful action has come amiss?"
