We see the
energetic, active business man, with a number of irons in the fire,
aware in his heart that he is insolvent, but not absolutely clear as to
his position, and hoping against hope to retrieve it. We see him give a
great dinner-party, in order to throw dust in the eyes of the world, and
to secure the support of a financial magnate, who is the guest of
honour. The financial magnate is inclined to "bite," and goes off,
leaving the merchant under the impression that he is saved. This is an
interesting and natural, but scarcely a thrilling, crisis. It does not,
therefore, discount the supreme crisis of the play, in which a cold,
clear-headed business man, who has been deputed by the banks to look
into the merchant's affairs, proves to him, point by point, that it
would be dishonest of him to flounder any longer in the swamp of
insolvency, into which he can only sink deeper and drag more people down
with him. Then the bankrupt produces a pistol and threatens murder and
suicide if the arbiter of his fate will not consent to give him one more
chance; but his frenzy breaks innocuous against the other's calm,
relentless reason.
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