. As if to add to their prosperity, copper-mines were discovered on
lands in the occupation of the B. Banking Company, which gave the most
astonishing returns. And throughout the vast territories of British India,
through the great native firm of Rummun Loll &amp; Co., the Bundelcund Banking
Company had possession of the native markets. The order from Birmingham for
idols alone (made with their copper and paid in their wool) was enough to make
the Low Church party in England cry out; and a debate upon this subject actually
took place in the House of Commons, of which the effect was to send up the
shares of the Bundelcund Banking Company very considerably upon the London
Exchange.
    The fifth half-yearly dividend was announced at twelve and a quarter per
cent. of the paid-up capital; the accounts from the copper-mine sent the
dividend up to a still greater height, and carried the shares to an
extraordinary premium. In the third year of the concern, the house of Hobson
Brothers, of London, became the agents of the Bundelcund Banking Company of
India; and amongst our friends, James Binnie, who had prudently held out for
some time, and Clive Newcome, Esq., became shareholders, Clive's good father
having paid the first instalments of the lad's shares up in Calcutta, and
invested every rupee he could himself command in this enterprise. When Hobson
Brothers joined it, no wonder James Binnie was convinced; Clive's friend, the
Frenchman, and through that connection the house of Higg, of Newcome and
Manchester, entered into the affair; and amongst the minor contributors in
England we may mention Miss Cann, who took a little fifty-pound note share, and
dear old Miss Honeyman, and J.J., and his father Ridley, who brought a small bag
of savings - all knowing that their Colonel, who was eager that his friends
should participate in his good fortune, would never lead them wrong. To Clive's
surprise Mrs. Mackenzie, between whom and himself there was a considerable
coolness, came to his chambers, and with a solemn injunction that the matter
between them should be quite private, requested him to purchase £1,500 worth of
Bundelcund shares for her and her darling girls, which he did, astonished to
find the thrifty widow in possession of so much money. Had Mr. Pendennis's mind
not been bent at this moment on quite other subjects, he might have increased
his own fortune by the Bundelcund Bank speculation; but in these two years I was
engaged in matrimonial affairs (
