J , X THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Blanche meets her Father. HASTE TO BE Eicn.) MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH; oa, Cempfation raft Jail. BY T. S. ARTHUR, AUTHOR OF " KEEPING tTP APPEARANCES," " RICIIF8 HAVE WINGS," " RISING IN TIIB WORLD," ETO.. BTO. " He that niaketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.' 1 PROV. xxviii. 20. NEW EDITION. NEW YORK COLLINS & BROTHER, 106 LEON A H D STR E ET. TALES FOR THE RICH AND POOR. BT T. S. ARTHUR. Six VOLUMES 16mo, ILLUSTRATED. KEEPING UP APPEARANCES. RICHES HA YE WINGS. KISING INTI1E WORLD. MAILING HASTE TO BE Rl^ff. J>K#/UR AND RK1IRIXG FROM COI.LI15S & BROTHER. Publishers. >i4 J^OSAKB-STBEKT, KE\? YOEK. EntereU,liccording to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by BAKKR t SCRIBXER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. CONTENDS. CHAPTER I. MLANS FOR THE PUTaRE , , 5 CHAPTER II. DIFFERENT VIEWS AND ACTS 17 CHAPTER IIL K1RST DEPARTURE FROM RIOHT 23 CHAPTER IV. CRCEI. PERFIDY ...30 CHAPTER V. THE TWO tCEWES ; .36 CHAPTER VI. A FAIR FIELD FOR ENTERPH1SB . 49 CHAPTER VIL HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE 61 CHAPTER VIII. IJWURY TO AN OLD FRIEND ....... .77 CHAPTER IK. NE'V AND BOLDER SCHEMES , .65 1* 1213328 IV CONTENTS. PA03 CHAPTER X. A FINANCIERING OPERATION ...... . . 99 CHAPTER XJ. THE TEMPTATION AND F^LL 113 CHAPTER XIL CHIME DISCOVERED . . , . 11J4 CHAPTER XIII. CONSEQUENCES 13ti CHAPTER XIV. THE FINAL CATASTROPHE 143 CHAPTER XV. SADDER EVENTS 150 CHAPTER XVI THE PRISONER 7SKE . 153 CHAPTER XVII CONCLUSION t . Ife MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. CHAPTER I. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. Two young men, named Franklin Riddell and Morris Jordan, had spent an evening with some lady acquaintances. As the air was mild, and a bright moon shone in the sky, they walked the streets for an hour before returning home, in earnest conversation about the present and the future. " The more I see of Anne Bradford, the more am I charmed inth her," remarked Rid dell. " She has good sense, taste, firmness, and an even temper ; qualities so desirable in a companion for life." " And deep feeling united to all," said Jor dan. " Yes, she is a girl of deep feeling. Too deep, perhaps, for her own happiness. If sho has any defect of character, it lies here," ft MAKING HASTE TO BE RICE. " I should hardly call that a defect." *' Not too great sensitiveness ?" " Too great .sensitiveness is a defect cer tainly. But I do not think this may fairly be charged upon Anne as a fault." " Perhaps not ; though it rather strikes mo that she feels too quickly and too deeply. But, be this as it may, she is a lovely girl, and, as I have just said, the more I see of her, the more am I charmed with her beauty, intelligence, and grace. If I were to look the city through, I do not believe I could find one more fitted to make me happy. In a word, Morris, I have determined, if she do not object, to make her, at some future day, my wife. How do you ap prove my decision ?" " I approve it fully," was replied. " And, as you have been so frank on this subject, I wil! be equally so. For Anne's sister, Maria, I have long felt a most earnest regard ; and this regard, it is plain to me, is reciprocated. I shall no longer delay a declaration of my sen timents and feelings. At the earliest suitable opportunity, I will open to the sweet girl all that is in my heart." " And may the result be as your heart de sires," returned Riddell. " 1 doubt not it will be so. Most sincerely do I congratulate you PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. 7 on the prospect of a union with one who is in every way so worthy of your best affections. If we both find favor in the eyes of these lovely sisters, we shall in the end be still more closely united than we are now." " To me a pleasant thought," said Jordan. " And equally so to me," responded his friend. " But," he added in a more serious tone, " I'm afraid it will be some time before we shall realize a happy consummation of our present desires." " Why so ?" asked Jordan. " We are neither of us in a situation to marry, and may not be for four or five years to come." " You get a thousand dollars a year, and my salary is eight hundred. I think we might venture to commit matrimony on this basis." " Never. If you marry as a clerk, the chances are, ten to one, that you remain a clerk to the end of your days ; and this would not suit me. First, I mean to get well started in business for myself, and then take a wifo not before." " Business, and the results of business, are, then, first in your mind and maniage second ary ?" MAKING HASTE TO BE RTCB. " That is your inference, not my declaiation^ Jordan." " But is not that conclusion involved ?" " I do not see that it is. No man ought to marry until he is able to support a wife hand somely." " If all waited for that, there would be fewflT marriages than there air. " " I know. But look at the result of an op posite course. Men's faces to the grindstone, and women slaves for life. The woman I marry, Jordan, shall live like a lady." " And the woman I marry," replied his friend, " shall have every comfort in my power to give her, and no more. She must be will ing to share my lot, be it high or humble, or 1 will not take her for my wife. As to waiting until I go into business before marrying, that will depend on the prospect there is of starting in the world soon. On my present salary, I can, with economy, support a wife comfortably. That fact is sufficient reason to me for taking a companion, if I meet with the one I like ; and 1 think I have met with that one. All that remains is to get the maiden's consent. That obtained, and I think no very long time will pass before I am a married man," " Marry in haste and repent at leisurs. So PLANS FOR THE FL1URE. !4 it has been from the beginning, and so it will be, I suppose, to the end. But I am not to be betrayed into any weakness of this kind. I am not going to mar all my future prospects by a hurried assumption of the married man's res ponsibilities. No, not I. I want to get a fair start first. Then I will make my own fortune, and no thanks to any body. I have ability, enterprise, ambition ; and I am satisfied to rest my hopes with them. All I want is to get fairly in the current ; let it run as swiftly as it may, I will trust to my own skill in guiding my vessel safely." " How soon do you think of commencing business ?" asked Jordan. " As soon as I can see my way clear to do so. I have a couple of thousand dollars laid by. But I can't start on that." " Why not ? You might open in a small way." " No small way for me, friend Jordan. I am of too ardent a temperament. It will be im possible for me ever to ris-e by the slow and sure way. Enterprise enterprise ! That is the word. Fortunes are to be made in a day, so to speak, by those who have the required enterprise." 1C MAKING HASTE TO BE KICH. * There is great risk attendant upon the course you propose." " Nothing venture, nothing gain, you know. But I'll look out for that. I'll take care of number one, you may depend upon it." " How much money do you expect to accu mulate, before you venture upon the sea of trade in your own barque ?" asked Jordan. Riddell shook his head. " I don't expect to get a capital by saving it from my paltry salary. It would take me twenty years." " How, then, will you obtain it r" " There are plenty of rich men, with sons too indolent to acquire a thorough knowledge of business. These rich fathers must give their sons a start in the world, but are generally afraid to trust them in business by themselves. Young men thoroughly educated in a commer cial house, are picked out as partners, and capital set against their capacity. Do you un derstand ?" " Oh, yes ! very well.'' " Then you have the idea " " But, suppose no rich father happen to se lect you as the partner of Ids son. What thon ? PLANS FOK THE FUTURE. il Riddell shrugged his shoulders and then re plied " I think I can manage that. There are two or three old codgers in our business, with whom I come pretty frequently in contact. They all have sons in their stores, learning to be mer chants I take good care, whenever I have any business to transact with these observing old gentlemen, to appear very shrewd, prompt, and intelligent. One of them has his eyes on me, I know, from the manner in which he asks questions when we meet. His son, two or three years younger than I am, is just the kind of a man 1 should like for a partner. Fond of pleasure, ignorant of business, and indifferent about his own interests." " A poor sort of a man for a partner, I should say," remarked Jordan. " The very man for me. All I want with a partner is capital ; and I'd much rather he would reside in the moon, than anywhere near me. The young man of whom I speak would be a mere cypher; and, therefore, I could push everything according to my own notions. Do you take the idea ?" " Perfectly." " Well, what do you think of it ? Won't it do?" 2 12 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH "It may do for you, Riddell; though 1 douht if the final result be as good as if, like a little boat, you were content to keep near the shore at first, and venture farther out to sea when your experience became larger, and your knowledge of mercantile affairs more exten sive." " As to that, friend Jordan, I flatter myself that I understand the operations of trade pretty thoroughly ; much more so, in fact, than dozen? of very thrifty merchants, who have accumu lated fortunes. If I had the means and facili ties that some houses I could point to possess, I would make two dollars to their one. The fact is, one half of our business men are asleep." " It may be better to sleep in safety, than tempt destruction by rushing forward with railroad velocity," suggested Morris Jordan. " Let them sleep who will," replied Riddell. " I belong to the wide-awake, go-ahead portion of the community. In ten years from now, you will see me over the heads of dozens of the sleepy tribe, who now grope along in the paths of trade, actually in the way of better and more enterprising men." " You'll mount far enough over my head, no doubt," said his companion. " Not if you will act upon my advice, and PLANS FOR THE FUTURE I-' follow my example. You have plenty uf the right kind of stuff in you, Morris plenty." " 1 think I will h aid by the good old motto ' slow and sure.' It will give me competence and contentment," said Jordan. " I have no wish to feel the eager, all-absorbing desire for great wealth that is such a passion with you. It is not good, depend upon it, this making haste to be rich. There is a saying of old king Solomon's, that always forces itself upon my mind, when I see men pressing eagerly for ward in the race for gold. ' He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.' ' " And do you believe it, Jordan ?" " I certainly do." " That is, you believe a man of great busi- ne'ss enterprise cannot be an honest man ?" " I did not say so. A man may have the enterprise you speak of, and yet be a man of the strictest integrity. All that I mean when I say that I believe in the proverb, is, that a man who makes haste to be rich, will be so tempted at every step to overreach his neigh bor, as to bo in great danger of falling away from strict integrity, even while he does not dream that, in securing his own interests, he is doing so at the oof-'t of wrotr? to his neighbor The lo\e of nvmoy, for its own sn.lco is sure tr 1-1 . MAKING HAS'lE TO BE RICH. blind us to the rights of others. And I be lieve no man makes haste to bo rich, who does not so love money." " I am sure that I do not love money for its own sake," said Riddell. " 1 hope you do not, Franklin Riddell. But it is a truth, that the real affection of our ininds is uot always apparent to our thoughts. It will certainly influence our actions, how ever, and lead us into just the error that cor responds with the false principle concealed in the hidden motive." " You are too much of a philosopher for me, Morris. I can't stop to inquire so profoundly in regard to motives, when I see so much be fore me to do. Action is the great principle of my life. The fact is, my friend, you think too much deal too much in mental abstractions- - are luo nice on the score of motives. You must come out of this, or you will be left far behind in the race. You have ability enough, energy enough. Come, my friend ! Wake up ! Look around you for golden opportuni ties as I am doing, and seize upon the first that offers. I do not want, as 1 rise, to look back upon you grovelling in the plain below, with the great, unambitious horde." " Don't feel any concern for me, Frank,' PLANS FOR THE FUTUIIK . 15 replied Jordan, calmly. " Without doubt, I shall pass safely enough though the world You take your course, and I will take mine From small beginnings often come large re tiults. The mighty river was at first a trickling rill, and many a mile it went stealing on in its unambitious course, before its waters were deep nough to bear even the smallest boat upon iheir surface. I would rather be like thot growing rill, than resemble the mountain torr rent, suddenly rushing forth a rapid stream." " Each to his taste, then. If you are content to plod along, and add, carefully, cent to cent and dollar to dollar, I must not complain. But that course won't do for me. It is unac- cordant with the spirit of the age. There is too much go-ahead in me to make a merchant of the old school. Ten, twenty, and even fifty thousand dollars have been accumulated in a year by men who knew what they were about. That's doing things after my fancy. I frankly own that I like the sound of it. It makes my blood warm up at the very thought. Wait a few years, and I'll let you see what I can do in that line. I hope old Mr. Alexander will make up his mind right speedily as to the partner ship that I am a little ambitious of forming with his son Henry. J 16 MAKING HASTE TO BB RICH a Alexander is the man, then ?" said Jor- don. " Yes, what .do you think of him r" ir quired Riddell. " I think," was the prompt reply, " that 1 would rather remain a clerk all my days than have a business connexion with Henry Alex ander." " Why ?" " 1 have a most thorough contempt for him " " Why r" Is it necessary for you to ask ? Do you jot know him to be a young man with a weak head and a had heart r" " As to his bad heart, that is a matter per sonal to himself, and has nothing to do with a mere business connexion. I am not afraid ot his exercising it upon me. The weak head is a merit rather than a defect. It will leave the management of affairs entirely in my hands." ' Ye maun gang ye'r ain gait, Franklin, and I will go nune," said Morris Jordan, pausing at his own door. " When the end comes, it will to seen who is right." 4 As to the question of right, I shall care very little," replied Riddell, " if I find myself the fortunate p assessor of a few hundreds of DIFFERENT VIEWS AND ACTS. 17 thousands, when I begin to think of retiring from business. Good night." And the young men parted, each having been in earnest in what he had said. CHAPTER II. DIFFERENT VIEWS AND ACTS. NOT a very long time was suffered to elapse, before the- two young men, Riddell and Jordan, made known to Anne and Maria Bradford that they entertained for them a warmer sentiment than friendship. This declaration was received joyfully by the sisters, for their hearts had long been more interested than they had dared own, even to themselves. Anne was, at this time, about twenty, and two years older than her sister. In accepting the love of Riddell, she gave, in return, a heart full of confiding tenderness. She believed him to possess every virtue, and was proud of the frank manliness of his character, as it appeared in her eyes. When he spoke, enthusiastically, of his future hopes, and firm resolution to overcome every obstacle that might stand in J8 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. the way of his advancement to wealth, Anne listened to him with a stronger feeling of adini ration for the energy of character such declara tions displayed, than of pleasure at the thought of sharing with him the blessings wealth would bring. She saw no blemish in his character, and dreamed not that beneath all, so fair and attractive to her eyes, lay cold-hearted selfish ness that would trample upon even the most sacred and holiest things to gain its end. In her dream of love, all things were bright anl beautiful. The sky that bent so smilingly over her future life had in it no cloud. Maria was younger ; and though younger, had a calmer spirit than her sister, and more instinctive penetration into character. She was never much drawn towards Riddell. There was something about him what, she could not .say that threw over her a feeling of con straint, and made his society disagreeable rather than pleasant to her. But towards Jordan she had, since the day of her first meeting with him, a different emotion, and when he spoke of the tender regard for her that lived in his heart she felt herself blest indeed in being loved by one of whose sincerity, honor, and manly in tegrity she had Hot the shadow of a doubt. Neither of tbo sisters had anything in pros- WFFEKENT VIEWS AND .\CTS. 19 pcct, so far as worldly goods were concerned. Their father was engaged in manufacturing in a small way, and his income was never more than sufficient for the wants of an expensive family. He had several children, and to these he strove to give the very best possible education it was in his power to bestow, rather than seek to ac cumulate for them a few dollars which, at most, would divide but meagrely among so many. Riddell and Jordan were well aware of this. Their love for the daughters, therefore, had in it nothing of sordidness. With Jordan, it was a pure, deep, earnest love for virtue, in the guise of a lovely young woman ; with Rid dell, it was a blind passion ; more a love of the mere person, and a desire to possess as his own one whose beauty, grace, and sweetness of man ner, charmed all who saw her. Very soon after Jordan had declared what was in his heart, he spoke of marriage. " My salary is not large," he said ; " But with economy, we may live upon it comforta bly. When the means of support exist, I do not believe it right to wait longer, merely in the hope of being better off. With increased wants, Providence will send increased supplies. As for young married couples supporting a cer tain style, 1 have always believed that the less 20 MAK.IKO HASTE TO BE RICH. they thought about that the better. No one more highly est2ems them for their fine houses and showy furniture ; while they, for the mere sake of appearances, are wasting the money that will be needed in after life, and taking upon themselves a world of unnecessary cares and troubles. These are my thoughts on the subject, Maria. What are yours ?" " We could not think more in unison than we do," returned the maiden, a brighter light in her eyes, and a warmer glow upon her cheeks. " Life has claims upon us for some thing more serious than mere idle show and needless extravagance ; and in obedience to these claims, serious though they be, there ever conies a sweet reward. Young as I am, I have already learned this. If we cannot be happy on the income you now have, we could not be if it were increased twenty fold. If it were even less than it is, I would not hesitate to take my place by your side, and share your lot in life. What God has given to you, is all I am to love, and all I wish for." For such noble words, Jordan thanked his bride-to-be with a tender salutation ; and, in his heart, thanked the Giver of all good for the blessing of such a companion for his journey through life. DIFFERENT VIEWS AND ACTS. 21 Different from this was the interview be tween Anne and her lover. When it was men tioned that Jordan and Maria were to be mar ried at an early date, Riddell spoke of it as altogether premature. " My salary is larger than his, and my pros pects better ; yet I would not think of such an act of injustice to my wife as to marry now I've said all I could to Jordan ; but you might as well talk to the wind. When he sets his mind upon doing anything, he can see no reason in anything you may urge to the con trary. " This was said to Anne, but she made no answer. She did not so greatly blame Jordan and her sister ; but then, she could not, on ac count of the delicacy of her own position, ven ture a word of justification. " In a little while I shall go into business for myself," he added. " A very few years will give me the ability to place my wife in the po sition she is by nature destined to fill ; and introduce her to the circle she will adorn." A few years ! How long a time that seemed to Anne. She did not seem ambitious to grace the circles of fashion, nor to fill any higher place than the affections of her husband. But 1 *he acquiesced, with apparent cheerfulness, ic 22 BAKING HAVTE TO BE. RICH his views, and carefully guarded her lips, lest they should betray what was in her hoart. Within a year, Jordan and Maria were mar ried. Riddell did not hesitate to express hb strong disapproval of the act, but what he thought and felt on the subject was of but little account to those most deeply interested. In stead of taking a showy house, and going in debt for costly furniture, the young married pair were content with a couple of pleasant rooms, the rent of which was less than a hun dred dollars a year. In their humble way, they were far happier than hundreds around them more ambitious to make an appearance in the world. CHAPTER III. FIRST DEPARTURE FROM RIGHT. NEARLY twelve months elapsed after Riddell had entered into an engagement of marriage with Anne Bradford, before the long looked for and long desired co-partnership proposition was made. It came, as he had expected, from a merchant named Alexander, who wished to make FIRSi' DEPARTURE FROM RIG/11. 23 for his son a business connexion with a man of capacity, mercantile education, and energy of character. In Riddell, after having for a long time observed him closely, he believed he had found the right man. His proposition was to furnish a cash capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, and for the use of that to have one- third of the net profits of the business ; the other two thirds to be equally divided between his son and Riddell. Our young adventurer thought this very fair, and did not hesitate about its acceptance. As he anticipated, his partner proved to bo a mere cypher, and spent much more time in riding out, and lounging in public places of resort, than in his store. Of course, the entire burden of the business fell upon him ; but he had no objection to this, as it would furnish him with a good plea, when the right time came, as come he meant that it should, to get rid of young Alexander, and thus come into the enjoy ment of the whole, instead of one-third, of the profits of the concern. The idea of anything unjust did not come into his thoughts. He had a perfect right to look to his own interest, and he meant to do it He did not form a business connexion for the sake of benefiting his partner, but him- 3 24 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. pelf. If that partner did not choose to look after his own affairs, he could not blauie any one if they did not, in the end, turn out alto gether to his satisfaction. For three years, Riddell pushed the new business with untiring efforts, and at the end of that time, considered himself fairly worth ten or fifteen thousand dollars in the concern, be sides having five thousand dollars safely invest ed and bearing a good interest, waiting for the time when he would have use for it. Notwith standing all that the father could do, young Alexander would not attend to business, and so affairs were left in the hands of his energetic partner, who managed everything to sxiit him self, steadily looking forward to the time, when he should be able to appropriate the entire pro ceeds of his own labor for his own benefit. For these three years, he had been constant in his attentions to Anne Bradford ; but still spoke of the day of marriage as* remote. He was sincerely attached to her, and often felt like speaking the word that would bring their long season of waiting to a close. But, from these moments of weakness, he would rise into a firmer resolution to await, patiently, until he was able to take upon himself the expense of a family. During all this time, Anne never FIRST DEPARTURE FROM RIGHT. 25 murmured ; never by word, look, or tone, Cora- plained of the long delay. Still, she could not, by an effort of the will, send the warm glow to her cheek, nor kindle up the old fires that burned in her beautiful eyes. Hope, long deferred, was making her heart sick. As time went on, Riddell grew more and more impatient of his connexion with Alexander, who continued to play the gentleman, and leave all the work in his hands. Daily did he pon der over the means of getting safely freed from the connexion. But he was shrewd enough to see, that the credit of the house depended not so much up8n his business capacity, as it did upon the substantiality, in a money point of view, of his indolent partner ; and, therefore, he considered it the better policy, to hold on yet awhile longer, than to risk all in cutting loose from him. As a natural consequence of his business as sociation with a member of a wealthy family, Riddell gradually found his way into social cir cles above those in which he had moved, and mingled freely with the rich and fashionable The thought, how easy it would be for him to make a fortune in a day, by marrying a woman who had money, now and then intruded itself: 26 . MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. but the instant remembrance of Anne expelled the errant thought. One day a friend said to him, " Why havn't you been as wide awake as Berkley ?" " In what has he shown superior wakeful- ness ?" enquired Riddell. " In securing a wife worth a cool fifty thou sand." " Berkley !" " Yes, Berkley. Your quiet looking men are deep." " Worth fifty thousand ! Who is she ?" " None other than the niece of otd Mr. Alex ander your partner's cousin." " Mary Glenn ? " The same. What have you been about, that you did not secure that prize for yourself ? You have had opportunities enough. Surely, if a man like Berkley could win the lady's heart, you would have had no difficulty." " What you say surprises me Can it be true ?" " There is no doubt of it. I have it from the best authority." Riddell was fully assured that it was so a week or two afterwards, when he received an invitation to attend the wedding party FIRST DEPARTURE FROM RIGHT 27 In spite of all he could do, the young man found it now impossible to force from his mind a feeling of regret that Anne had not possessed a handsome fortune, instead of being penniless. To be able to acquire, like Berkley, fifty thousand dollars by marriage, would be the most desirable consummation in the world. It would at once put it in his power to break away from Alexander, and give free scope to his enterpris ing spirit. With fifty thousand dollars what could he not do ? In imagination he saw him self sweeping onward in the race for great wealth with thrilling velocity. But a thought of the reality of his position checked this fan cied speed, and threw over him a feeling of discouragement. " To think," he murmured, " that a plod ding fellow like Berkley, should have such fa cilities thrown in his way, and I left to struggle on as I am, paying at the enormous rate of from sixty to seventy per cent, per annum for the capital upon which I operate. I am sick of this toil for the benefit of others. It is unjust to myself." Such thoughts, once entertained in a mind like Riddell's, became permanent guests. And now there began a struggle between honor and self-interest. Between his love for Anne Brad- 3* cS MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH ford and his love of gain ; and it was a long and severe struggle, driving for many a night, sleep from his eyes, and troubling his thoughts day after day so deeply, that even business was half neglected In the midst of this stern contest, Riddell met a beautiful young creature, who presented the double charm of possessing uncommon per sonal attractions and a rich father. At his first introduction, she seemed particularly pleased with him. The second time they met, he read in her eyes something that made his pulse beat quicker. Their third meeting brought to his mind this conviction, that he had only to woo to win. The father of the young lady Riddell knew personally. Their business brought them in 3ontact almost every day. He was a merchant named Ackland. The daughter he had never happened to meet before. Mr. Ackland, Riddell had always liked. He was a perfect gentleman in his business as well as in his social intercourse ; and there was a frankness that inspired confidence, and made yo a feel at home with him. Strangely enough, it seemed to Riddell, after having once fallen in with the charming Blanche Ackland, he met her almost every FIRST DEPARTURE FROM RIGHT. time he went into company ; and was more drawn towards her at each interview. No very long time elapsed before involun tary contrasts were drawn in his mind between Blanche and Anne, and they were not favorable to the latter, who had, from causes that may easily be imagined, grown more thoughtful and sober than she was a few years earlier in life There was a freshness, a vivacity, a warmth and cheerfulness about Miss Ackland that was particularly agreeable to Riddell, the more so, as the individual who exhibited all this, had even more substantial charms. At last came serious thoughts of receding from the contract long ago made with Anne Bradford. The match, he agreed, was not a suitable one for him, by any means. He had done very wrong ever to have committed him self. But how should he get free ? To breai off, suddenly, and thus abandon the woman who had waited patiently until he was ready to fulfil his engagement, appeared, even to him, so heartless, that he dismissed the thought of doing so. He feared, besides, that word of his shameless breach of faith would get wind, and mar his prospects in other quarters. And more than all this, he had to struggle with feelings of compunction, touches of sympathyi 30 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. and the unextinguished love of his own heart for the object it had turned to so long. For months this strong internal contest went on, until, at last, cold selfishness gained the victory, and Riddell deliberately made up his mind to sever the bond that had so long united him with Anne Bradford. How this was done will appear. CHAPTER IV. CRUEL PERFIDY. As month after month, and year after year went by, and yet the day of her marriage with Riddell seemed no nearer, Anne Bradford lost much of the lightness of spirits that made her, at one time, a pleasant companion to all. In company she was absent-minded, and at home, more inclined to dwell in the seclusion of her own chamber, than mingle with the family. Still, her heart was true to the sun of its love ; and she strove to keep firm in the belief, that her betrothed knew best when the rite that was to make them one, should be celebrated. At last, however, something in the manner CRUEL PERFIDT. 31 of Riddell, added to the fact that his visits were becoming less and less frequent, awoke the painful suspicion that he was growing indiffer ent. From that moment darkness fell, like a pall, over her heart. When her lover came, she would rally herself with a strong effort, and strive to appear as of old, but the disguise as sumed did not conceal all. He was colder and more formal, and, evidently, under a certain degree of restraint in her presence. One even ing he called, and met Anne with a manner more than usually cordial. He spoke of tho length of time they had waited, and said that the period long looked for was not now, he hoped, far distant. Gradually he grew more and more fond and familiar in his words and manner more so, in fact, than he had ever been and ended in venturing to take an in suiting liberty, that was resented by the out raged maiden, in a prompt and indignant order for him to leave her presence. He instantly obeyed. "Free, and by her own word!" said the young man, exultingly, as he turned from the house. He had calculated with accuracy, and gained a desired result. But the thoughts that forced themselves upon his mind, soon took away all the pleasure a sense of freedom gave 32 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. He felt the baseness, the dishonor, the cruelty of what he had done, and, ere the act was an hour old, sat with a burning cheek brooding over his shameful perfidy, and cursing the heartlessness that could prompt to such a deed. This was the first result. But oblivious self- love soon came to his relief; and the great good to be gained by the sacrifice came looming up before him, and making his spirit light with pleasant anticipations. A weight that had been bearing him down was removed. He could now pursue the great end of his life without a trammel. The world was wide be fore him. Poor Anne Bradford ! How suddenly waa her cup dashed to the earth ! After her false hearted lover retired, she had barely strength to go up to her room, where she sank upon the bed, insensible. On the next morning, she did not appear at the usual breakfast hour, and when her mother went to her chamber to as certain the reason, she found her very ill. But as to the cause of the illness, or its nature, she could learn nothing. Her daughter's counte nance was exceedingly pale, and had a look of great suffering. Her eyes she did not once open, although she was awake, and made low, brief replies, in a sad voice, to the eager ques CRUEL PERFIDY. 33 tions that were asked ; out the wet lids showed, too plainly, that she had been weeping. " I will send Edward for the doctor immedi ately," said Mrs. Bradford, moving away from the bedside, after having in vain tried to get at some knowledge, were it but remote, of her daughter's ailment. But no sooner was this intention declared, than Anne raised up quickly, and called after her mother, in a low, trem bling voice " Oh, no, no ! Don't send for the doctor; he will do me no good." Mrs. Bradford turned, and went back to the bedside. u My dear child," she said, with earnest tenderness, u tell me the cause of this sudden and strange illness. What does it mean ? What has happened ?" Anne sank forward, and hid her face in her mother's bosom. " Speak, Anne ! Conceal nothing from me." But the heart-sick girl gave no reply, ex cept in tears. There was a silence of many minutes. " Say, my daughter ? What has happened ' Confide in me ; you know that I am your best and truest friend," Mrs. Bradford nt length said. - 34 MAKING UASTE TO BE RICH. A deep, shuddering sigh passed through the frame of the unhappy girl. But no sound came from her tightly closed lips. " Anne!" The mother spoke in a calm dis tinct voice, and in a tone that plainly said, " My child must answer me." " Anne '" she repeated, still firmly, but ten derly. The daughter did not speak, hut there was a plain indication that she heard. " Will you not confide in me ?" " Mother," murmured the suffering girl, " I can say nothing now. 1 feel as if it would kill me to speak. But do not send for a phy sician ; he can do me no good. Leave me to myself for a little while. It may be that my heart will grow stronger." As desired, Mrs. Bradford left Anne alone. In an hour she returned, and found that she had arisen and dressed herself. She was sit ting near the window, her eyes upon the floor, and her face composed, though exceedingly pale. u Do not withhold from me, any longer, my daughter, the cause of this deep affliction," eaid the mother, sitting down by her side, and taking her hand. With a steady Voice, Anne related the occur CRUEL PERFIDY. 35 ronce of the preceding evening, aad ended by saying : " 1 have been cruelly deceived. How ten derly, how truly, how devotedly I loved him, none can know; and yet he has proved himself unworthy. I could have seen him estranged through higher attractions than I possess, with out the crushing sense of pain that I now feel, in knowing that his heart is base, and corrupt; enough to meditate wrong against one who so truly loved him." Her voice trembled and choked, but she re covered herself, a%d added " Let me beg, mother, that nothing be said of this beyond the circle of our own family. I do not wish to injure him, unworthy as he is, and deeply as he has wronged me. As far aa strength is given me to do so, will I endeavor to bear, patiently, my suffering." As she said, so did Anne strive to do. But the wound had been struck too deeply, and the life-blood flowed steadily, though concealed. For a time she seemed to be herself again ; but in a few months it was too evident to those who knew her best and loved her most, that she was failing. Naturally she had a delicate con etitution, in which had been sown, at birth, the Beeds of early decay These seeds were vivi- 4 36 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. fied by the painful shock she had received Scarcely a year passed, before the stricken one fell to the earth. " Consumption, like a worm i 1 the bud, Fed on hei damask cheek." So it was sa'.d. There were those who knew better*. But she slept as sweetly as if no pang bad ever rent her heart ; and it was as well. CHAPTER ^V. THE TWO SCENES. FOR weeks, and even months, Riddell had mis givings as to consequences arising from what he had done consequences to himself. But nothing farther than a cold stern glance from the eye of Mr. Bradford, whom he occasionally met, and a few smarting words from his old friend Jordan, came to trouble him, and these he did not think matters of very serious mo ment. Free, now, to push his claims for favor in the syes of the lovely Blanche Ackland, Rid dell made the best of all opportunities for do ing so that occurred, and was soon happily THE TWC SCENES 37 favored with evidences of success not to be mistaken. At length he ventured to visit her at her father's house. Ho had many doubts as to the result of this But it was favorably re ceived, both by the maiden and her parents, as far as he could judge from appearances. On the day after, he met Mr. Ackland, who was particularly polite to him. " So far, so good," said the young man to himself. " Ackland is rich, and no mistake. Let me once get into his family, and I will not long be troubled with Alexander, nor be forced to carry on a large business for a third of the profits." Mr. Ackland, the father of Blanche, was a man of wealth. He had started with nothing but his own industry and energy of character, and these had carried him on to fortune. In like means of success he had great faith, and had settled it in his mind, and so expressed it in his family, that he would rather see his daughters married to young men of the right stamp, wl-.o had their fortunes to make, than become the wives of rich men's sons, who were far more likely to spend what was left to them, and beggar their families before they died, than they were to add to or even retain their wealth. He h^d loner observed Rim him with loathing. But this THE TWO SCENES. ' 39 was not to be For some inscrutable cause, she was suffered to become his companion ; to lie in his bosom ; to be his second self. No, no, not that ! never his second self ! That would be impossible. Only the image of this ; for true conjunction of souls never takes place between the evil and the good. There is only the external of marriage, never the true inter nal. It was, in due time, known that Riddell was to lead to the altar Blanche Ackland. The young man was congratulated on one side, and the father on the other. " I think your future son-in-law a man with the right kind of stuff in him,V said a friend to Mr. Ackland, a short time before the marriage of Riddell with Blanche took place. " So do I," was replied. " Give me, after all, a man who has energy and enterprise enough to make his own way in the world, and in the face of all sorts of disabilities and opposition. Even if misfortunes should at any time meet him, they cannot long hold him under. He will rise again in spite of everything. It is different with your rich man born. Throw him into the river of misfortune, and he sinks to the bottom like Lead, and never can rise again by virtue of any inherent buoyancy." 4* 40 - MAKING HASTE ro BE RICH. " Very true Inabilities that inhere and those that merely adjoin themselves to a man by virtue of circumstances, are very different." " And, strangely enough, too few make this important discrimination. If a man have money, that is considered merit enough. The question whether he have the ability to make money, should he lose what he has, is not asked. And yet the last consideration is, after all, of the most importance." " Certainly it is. That virtue the young man Riddell possesses in a high degree. Look with what energy he is conducting business, even with the weight of his good-for-nothing partner upon him." " A weight that he has already intimated to me his ardent desire to throw off. But that between ourselves. He shall have the oppor tunity ere long." "Can he get rid of Alexander easily ?" " He must get rid of him. The only thing that holds them together is the young man's capital of twenty-five thousand dollars." " You can easily put him above the want of that." " Yes ; and I mean to do so. In a month his marriage with Blanche is to take place &fler the celebration of that event, I will see THE TWO SCENES 41 that he has a clearer way before him than he has yet had." " For which determination I give you cre dit," said the friend. The month soon rolled round, and the tune for celebrating the nuptials of Riddell and Blanche Ackland arrived. The parents gave their daughter a grand wedding party, at which the young and the beautiful assembled in crowds to tender the lovely bride their warm congratulations on the most happy event of her life. Of all in the gay company, perhaps Riddell felt least at ease. The thought of Anne Brad ford, whom a month or two before he met in the street, looking a very shadow of what she had been, kept forcing itself into his mind, and resting darkly upon his spirit. It war, in vain that he turned from this intruding thought The rebuking face of the maiden he had so deeply wronged, was ever before him, and there were many times during that evening when he saw nothing else, even though crowds were around him. " Why s) serious, my young friend?" said an elderly lady to the absent-minded bride grown, breaking in upon thoughts of Anre. f Blanche, " You know Bradford, who has his manufac tory near your store ? " " Oh, yes, very well," replied Mr. Ackland " What of him ? " " I am told he lost his eldest daughter last night." "Ah! What ailed her?" " She was in a decline, I believe. Though if is intimated, I know not with how much truth, that she died of a broken heart." Riddell felt the blood grow cold in his veins, at this sudden announcement of Anne Brad ford's death, and intimation of the true cause. " Of a broken heart ? " said the bride in a tone of interest. " Had she been disappointed in love ? " " So it is said. I could not learn the name of the young man whose baseness, it is alleged by some, was the cause of her early death. He won her affections, and after keeping her company for two or three years, under a mar riage contract, deserted her for a richer bride. Twelve months sufficed to lay her among the clods, of the valley." "Poor Bradford!" said Mr. Ackland. "He is a man whom I greatly esteem, and I do feel 5 48 MAKING H4.STF. TO BE RICH for him deeply. As to his daughter she if better off than thje brido of her faithless lover , for if riches be the charm that won her hus band, she will never be happy with him. One so sordid and base as he will soon show himself in his true colors, even to her." The agitation of Riddell's mind was great. He feared to look into the face of any one at the table, lest he should betray his feelings. " I would not be the wife of that man for a thousand worlds," remarked Blanche, with an inward shudder at the thought, and leaning, with a trustful air, towards her husband, as she spoke. At this moment Riddsll's eyes met those of a lady on the opposite side of the ttible. He bore their gaze for only an instant ; that was long enough to satisfy him that she knew his secret. Great was his relief when the subject of con versation changed. During the week of festi vity that followed his marriage, he was haunted almost constantly with thoughts of Anne ; and many an hour through the long nights, did he lay awake, feeling every moment as if her wronged spirit were about to appear. Bitterly was he paying the price of his first great error A 1 \lh KIKLD FOR EN FEKPRISE 49 CHAPTER VI. A FAIR FIELD FOR ENTERPRISE. THE ruling love of every man, be it what it may, holds in subjection all other affections of his mind. At times this love is quiescent, and then other affections show themselves ; but the moment it again awakens into life, everything that docs not accord with it, is hushed into re pose. The ruling love of Riddell, was a love of ac quiring money for its own sake. He was am bitious of possessing great wealth. Every affection of his mind, therefore, that stood in the way of the accomplishment of this great end, had to come into subserviency ; or retire, lest it be consumed by the heat thereof. When he went forth into the world again, after the excitement of gay parties, dinners, and excur sions was over, his ruling love assumed, once more, dominion in his mind, and he no longer writhed beneath the smarting pains that intel ligence of Anne's death had brought. The story of a broken heart, that he had felt to be true, was no move believed. Consumption had done the work of d^ath unon her, and would 50 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH have done it if he Lad never known her. R id- dell was again a man of the world, eager in his pursuit of the highest prize he believed it in the power of the world to bestow. " Requi- escat in //ace," he said, and dismissed the thought of Anne Bradford from his mind. Th next important step for Riddell to take, in order to secure his worldly interests, was to get the business of Alexander and Riddell en tirely into his own hands. Within a few months, from some cause or other, a change had taken place in his partner. He no longer spent a large portion of his time in pleasure-taking, or lounging about the store, but gave active at tention to business, and showed himself to pos sess both talents and shrewdness. But Riddell was careful to give him as little opportunity to bo useful as possible, and to force him as much as he could into the position of a mere cypher. This did not now suit the young man, who felt that his partner was assuming too much, and hold ing too exclusive a control over the business. What was passing in the mind of Alexander, Riddell plainly saw ; and he also saw, with the quick perception self-interest gave him, that it would be the easiest thing in the world to fret the young man, and thus gradually pro voke a quarrel, that would end in a dissolution A FAIR FIELD FOR ENTERPRISE 51 No one tVen would suspect that he had used the capital and credit of Alexander as long as it was useful to him, and then thrown his partner off. With this end in his mind, he cculd be par- fectly cool, while Alexander lost tempyr and in dulged in offensive language. For a month or two, he continued to resist all his partner's efforts to get an equal share of control in the business, and treated him as if he were actu ally encroaching, upon and trying to invade his rights. At length, Alexander told him boldly, that he acted as if he had been playing a false game in the business, and was fearful of detec tion. This was enough. " Let the business be closed then," prompt ly returned Riddell. " As you please," coolly replied Alexander. " It shall be closed !" exclaimed Riddell with emphasis. " I will not remain a day longer the partner of a man who neglected his business for years, and then insults me, because I am not weak enough to yield the reins to his unskilful hands." Efforts were made by the father and friends of Alexander to heal the breach, but Riddell would listen to none of their overtures. He affected tc be deeply hurt by the suspicions that his partner had cast upon him in a moment 52 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. when chafed beyond endurance, and insisted that a thorough and rigid scrutiny into the whole business be made. This was what he least of all thiLgs wished ; and what he pre vented by this very course. Not that there was any thing wrong, but he was not willing that the actual extent of the business should be known, and its true value seen. As nothing but a dissolution of the co part nership would be agreed to by Riddell, an ef fort was made to effect this in a way satisfactory to all parties. But there was only one way that would satisfy our young adventurer, and that was an arrangement by which he was to retain th business. He did not avow this ; but rather kept it most carefully concealed. His mode of operation, was to bring objections against every proposed plan of settlement, and refuse, on some plea of injustice, to accede to every thing that was suggested. Even to an arbitra tion he demurred. At last, the father of Alex ander became wearied out with him, and to get rid of the -whole matter, offered to take forty thousand dollars for his own and his son's interest in the business, and let him have it all to himself. But Riddell would give but thirty- five thousand. Hopeless of any better arrange ment with a man who seemed so strangely ol> A FAIR FIEI.0 FOR ENTERPRISE. D.-f tase to everything that did not look directly to his own interest, Mr. Alexander finally agreed to take the last named sum, which was fully se cured to him by Mr. Ackland, and Riddell found himself where he had for years earnestly desired to be. From the day the old sign of Alexander and Riddell was displaced by one bear ing the name of Franklin Riddell, our enter prising man of business expatiated in a new field, and marched onward with rapid strides. The withdrawal of Alexander did not in the least affect the credit of the house, for it was well understood that RiddelPs father-in-law had furnished an equal amount of capital to that withdrawn, or rather, had left the business in its integrity and assumed the payment of what Alexander had put in. It must not be inferred that young Riddell was led into wild and fruitless schemes of profit. Not he. He looked too clearly to the main chance. But he was shrewd, acute, and active, and did a larger amount of profitable business, by one-third, than any other merchant who had only the sa ne ca ital. His ruling love kept him ever on the alert. He was, as he had long before expressed it, wide awake as well as full of the go-ahead spirit. No one got the advantage of him iii bar- f)4 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH gain-making, for no one watched with a closer or more intelligent eye the fluctuations of the market, or with more shrewdness the rise and fall of prices. Many and many an operation did he make, without even bringing the article bought and sold to his store, and always at good advantage to himself. A sharper hand at driv ing a bargain, without appearing to be sharp, was not to be found. In fact, he was too sharp to be strictly honest. He stopped at no ad vantage that he could gain, provided it did not lay him open to the charge of fraud. To a man like Riddell will always be pre sented ways of using capital to advantage much more extensive fhan his means. In other words, he can always see how twice the busi ness he is doing could be done, if he but had money to do it with. Prudence whispered to Riddell that he had better not trespass too far upon Mr. Acklaud for the means of enlarging his business, lest that individu 1 should become impressed with the idea that he was extending himself too far. It would be far bettor in the end, he saw, to let Mr. Ackland come forward himself and proffer aid, than for him to solicit it. But, pushing everything with might and main as he was doing, he found himself, in less than a year after the dissolution with A FAIR FIELD FC R ENTERPRISE. 65 Alexander, closely pressed in making his pay ments. " This will not do," he said to himself. *' No man who expects to succeed ultimately in business, must permit himself to get hard pressed for money, and thus have his thoughts diverted from schemes of profit. I must put my mind to the matter and get it in a better condition. Here is an impediment, and I will remove it." Thus far he had stood aloof from all money institutions, and left financiering operations to others. , But the time had come for him to diverge a little from the old way. He, there fore, made himself as familiar as possible with the whole under current of things in the mo ney world, and pondered for some time ovei the safest and surest way to get command of enough capital to make him perfectly easy^ and yet enable him considerably to extend his business. This, he was shrewd enough to see, was not to be accomplished in a day, nor with out some risk, as he would have to work by others, and be in danger of loss through their mistakes and embarrassments. But plenty of capital was a great thing to have, and worth some risk to obtain. If Riddell had been content to go on as he 56 M \KING HASTE TO BE RICH. was going, and willing to donfine his business within the limits of his available means, ha would have accumulated money quite fast enough to satisfy almost any one. But the mania for getting rich fast for making twenty or thirty thousand dollars in a year had seized him, and the " paltry profits " of regular trade on a " small capital," were as nothing in his eyes. " If you will take my advice," said a mer chant, with whom he had some conversation in regard to the means to be used in getting him self in the Board of Directors in a certain Banking Institution, " you will keep entirely aloof from everything of the kind. You have a fa_r capital in business, and a good credit. Stand fast by them, and they will carry you on to fortune safely. But if you venture upon this fluctuating sea, you will be in danger. I speak from what I know. Many and many a goodly vessel have I seen go over. Here, my young fiicnd, more sail than ballast is usually carried. I have tempted this sea ; and am on it now, with all my fortune afloat I do not fear greatly for myself, for I take care of the ballast, and steer wide of heavy craft that might go down and engulf me in the whirl of waters But, where one rides on safely to fortune, ten A FAIR FIELD FOR ENTERPRISE. 57 are lured to destruction. For a young and ardent man like you, it is dangerous to tempt this sea." "lam ardent, I own,' 1 replied Riddell " But I believe my ardency of temper is well balanced. I can understand the operation of things about as clearly as anybody. What you Bay will apply to nine in ten ; but I hold my self to be the exception. I am not afraid. To go on as I am now going, when opportunities of doubling niy profits, if I had but ampler means, are all around me, chafes my eager spirit. I see myself losing thousands every year, that might be made. Elderkin, I am told, has never less than thirty or forty thou sand dollars out of bank, and why may not I have the same facilities ?" " You may have the same facilities if you work your card right," replied the merchant, whose name was Partridge, " and much greater ones. I have often had the use of double that amount of money ." "Indeed!" " Oh, yes. The few, not the many, use the capital of most banking institutions." " Give me such facilities, and I won't thank any man to stand my friend." " Then you arc seriously proposed to try bS MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. your hand at money-raising, as well as money- making ?" " J am. I must raise money before I can make it." " Very well," said Partridge. u I think 1 can manage to secure your election in the Citizens' Bank. I have a good deal of influence there. New directors will be chosen in about six weeks. Are you a stockholder ?" " No." " You must own a few shares of the stock. Say twenty shares." " Which will cost me a couple of thousand dollars." " Yes. But if you can't well spare this amount of money, you can borrow back two- thirds of it on a stock note." " That wouldn't 'look well." " No ; and should be avoided if possible. Still, if nothing better can be done, you might venture on that expedient." " You are in the Board ?" " Oh yes." " And expect to go in again ?'* " I shall be made President at the next elec tion." " You ?" " Yes." A FAIR FIELD FOR ENTERPRISE. 59 " Are you certain ?" " Riddell," said Mr. Partridge, changing his whole tone and manner, and speaking with impressive seriousness, " there is something iu you, that, I frankly own, I like. I do not be long to the common, slow-coach tribe of plod ders, with whom I never had and never can have any patience. There is enterprise, reso lution, boldness, and apprehension about you, and these are just to my fancy. But, before another step is taken in the matter proposed, and before I admit you any farther into a knowledge of my affairs, let us understand each other fully. I have it in my power to make your fortune, if you are of the true stamp, and I believe you are. Can I repose the fullest confidence in you ?" " I can only give you my word that you can," replied Riddell. " But, you know as well as I do, that interest is the strongest bojid that binds a mail to his fellow." "True." " Let that bond unite us, and we need not fear each other." " You are right," said Partridge. u Very well, as I have just intimated, I have it in my power to make your fortune if you be of the right stamp. There are many wheels within 6 60 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. wheels, Riddell The periphery of the great wheel, with its sljw, orderly revolutions, meets only the public eye ; those that whirl with al most lightning-like speed within, and in a re verse direction, ars not seen. They do the most work. As I have said, I shall be chosen President of the Citizens' Bank at the next election. Do you know how that will be done ?" " I am in ignorance of the means to be em ployed." " And so are a great many others. The stock of this bank happens to be in the hands of a few. I own one-third of it." " You ? " Yes. And can control the votes of an other third." " Then you can choose your own Board of Directors, as well as elect yourself President :" " That is the plain A B C of the matter ; although we mustn't say so. It doesn't sound well. The Directors being of my selection, will all be men upon whom I can depend. Yon understand ?" "Clearly." " Are you ready to go into the Board ?" *' I am !" was the prompt and emphatic re ply. HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. 61 " Procure a few shares of the stock. Eight or ten will do ; and I '11 see to your election. It is needless, I am sure, to enjoin the most perfect secrecy. A whisper of the real truth would mar everything." " Don't fear me, Mr. Partridge. I shall keep my own counsel." 1 After you are in the Board, I will give you a hint or two, that you can use for your own advantage. But, enough for the present." Riddell did not know the m^p with whom this singular interview was held, as well as he knew him afterwards. In duo time the elec tion for President and Directors took place, and Riddell found himself numbered among tho twelve men who, twice a week, sat at a long table, covered with green baize, in the Direc tors' room of the Citizens' Bank, and decided upon the paper offered for discount. CHAPTER VII. HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. ' IF it is a rule of the Board, that no Direc tor shall borrow money from the Bank, what benefit am I to derive from being one of said G2 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. Directors ?" asked Riddell of the President, shortly after his election. " You will understand that better after a while," replied Partridge. " A rule of this kind is a very important one, for two reasons To the public, it gives the impression that the Directors can have no control over the funds of the bank for their own use, and thus secures confidence. And it is, in the Board, a means of restricting accommodations to a few of the Director, who are shrewd enough to get around the rule, without appearing to violate it." Riddell was silent and thoughtful for some moments. The eyes of Partridge were fixed intently 'upon him. " Do you understand ?" asked the latter, breaking in, at length, upon the young man's reverie. " I believe I do," he replied. " Well, what do you think of it ?" " The Citizens 1 Bank, if I rightly apprehend the matter, is managed, solely, for the benefi; of a few, and not for the many." " Does that surprise you ?" " It ought not, I suppose/' But it does." " Not greatly I was aware that there were HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. t>3 wheels within wheels, as you before remarked j but I own that when I came to see these wheels actually in motion, things appeared a little dif ferent from what I had expected." Mr. Partridge smiled. " Every man must take care of himself in this world, you know," he said. " Yes. Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost," replied Riddell. " Exactly my sentiments ; and I generally act up to them. You don ? t suppose I would invest so large a sum in the stock of this bank, go to the trouble of having myself elected Pre sident, and look as narrowly after its affairs as I intend doing, if I did not expect to reap some benefit 5 " " No, 1 did not suppose any such thing." " Of course not. Men are not, as a general thing, so wonderfully devoted to the public good as to be willing to sit on boards, and at tend to the business of moneyed institutions without expecting some reward. But, you asked, just now, what benefit you were to derive from being a director. I will tell you. It will put it into your power, for instance, to favor a friend, who, in time, will favor you in some other bank. This is a single instance of the benefit that can be made to arise to you from 6* 64 MAKING HASTEl TO BE RICH. your new position ; a fact thai I thought you perfectly understood." " So I did. But, from some things you dropped, 1 was led to infer that a more direct good was to be derived from my position." " Not so eager, my young friend not so eager. The indirect way is the safest and the surest in the end. Money is never to be picked up in the streets. A plain and direct way is soon filled by crowds. The indirect way, which few know to exist, and fewer still have the shrewdness to find, and having found, the aerve to walk in, is the best way. But wait a while. I have some undeveloped schemes in my head. At the right time I will divulge them, if I think I can depend upon you as a co-worker in carrying them out. In the mean time, be content to use the facility which your position as a bank director gives you. If you play your cards right, you can easily get the use of from ten to twenty thousand dollars." On this hint Riddell acted. " Have you any good paper to offer, Brad ley r" he inquired a few days afterwards of a merchant whom he know to be a director in another bank, and who was aware that be held a like position in the Citizen? The two men were on intimate terms. H9W THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE 65 *' Yes, plenty," was replied. " Why ? Can you push it through your bank for me ?" "I can try." " For which favor, no doubt, you would like me to try what 1 could do for you," said Brad ley, smiling. " If it can be done as well as not," returned Riddell, affecting indifference. " Bat are there not three or four impracticable old fellows on your board :" " Impracticable at tiires. But I have never found any difficulty in managing them. Do you keep an account in our bank ?" > " No. I have not done so yet." " You'd better open one, had'nt you ?" " I suppose I had." " Do it ; and when you've any good paper to offer, let me know, and I'll work it through for you. In the meantime, I shall take advan tage of your influence in the Citizens', as long as you are kind enough to offer to stand my friend there." " On what days does your board meet ?' asked Riddell. " On Tuesdays and Fridays." " To-morrow is Tuesday. I'll make a de posit of a thousand dollars to-day, and OD 66 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. Thursday I will throw in about six thousand dollais of good business paper." '* City paper ?" " About one half of it." " You'd better get another name on thj country paper." " I prefer not asking any one to become endorser for me." " Mr. Ackland's name would go through our bank without a question." u No doubt of that. But he has already paid, and assumed to pay, of his own accord, about thirty-five thousand dollars for me, and that is as much as I can reasonably ask of him. N r o ; I wish to go along, for the present, independent of him. The paper is perfectly good." " Where is it payable ?" " Some in St. Louis, some in Cincinnati, some in Lexington, and some in Wheeling. My name ought to carry it through ; espe cially as I am now the son-in-law of Mr. Ack- land, who will stand by me if I should happen to get into any difficulty. This is to be taken into consideration." "Very true. Well, 111 do my best for you; and you must do the same for me." HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. 67 " You may depend upon my serving you to the extent of my ability." " Are you on good terms with Partridge ?" asked Bradley. " On the very best of terms." " All right then. Just give him a hint that you want such and such paper to go through, and the thing is done." Neither Riddell nor Bradley found any dif ficulty in pushing through the paper they wished to favor. The first, operation made, the two men followed it up with others, and Riddell became easy again in money matters ; for he could, without any difficulty, turn the bills of customers into cash, through the inte rest of his friend Bradley. This was the beginning of his financiering operations, and on the strength of it he imme diately extended his business ; for he saw that, by a similar arrangement with directors in two or three other banks, he could always get as much money as he wanted. About this time an occurrence took place, that, assailing his predominant love, tried still farther his integrity of character. A customer from the country, named Wieland, a man of honest principles, who owed him ten thousand dollars, called in one day, and bluntly told him *)8 MAKING HASTE TO BE- RICH. that, on account of recent heavy losses, he was unable to meet his payments, and, on settle ment of his affairs, would not be able, he feared, to pay over fifty per cent, of what he owed. " That's bad ; very bad," said Riddell, look ing grave, as well he might ; for the whole of hia customer's paper had been discounted, and would have to be provided for by himself. " It is bad, I own," was replied. " But what can't be helped, can't be. If I hadn't been cheated most outrageously, I would not have been in my present condition. But, I am here to arrange for an assignment for the mu tual benefit of all. I wish to retain nothing for myself. Let my business be closed up, and all that can be got from it realized." Riddell mused for some time. Then he asked " Is this matter known to your other credi tors ?" " No I have come to you first, because 1 owe you most." " Very well. For the present, say nothing about it. Let me have time to think over the matter. It is a pity for you to be broken down, if there is any hope of saving you. I dislike, above all things, to see a merchant fail. It is a bad precedent, to say the least of it " HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. 69 u I'm afraid, Mr. Riddell, that my case is hopeless," said the debtor. " No, I will not admit that. But let me have twenty-four hours for reflection. Per haps I may be able to suggest something Call to-morrow, at this time, Mr. Wieland ; and be sure not to mention what you have told me to any one, or it will put it out of my power to serve you, as 1 feel strongly inclined to do " As requested, Wieland called on the next day. Riddell received him with unexpected cheerfulness. " I've thought about you a good deal since you were here," he said, " and it seems to me, that you ought to make an effort to struggle through. You are a man of business habits, and able to make money if you only have a chance. But, I don't believe the country is the place for you. You would stand a far better chance here." " In this city !" " Yes. In this city.' Wieland shook his head. " I know you would," said Riddell posi tively. " A man like you should never vege tate in the country. Take my advice, and close up your business forthwith. I havo 70 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. thought it all over, and am satisfied that it is your very best course. I will extend your pay ments, and sell you as freely as before. This will enable you to meet your other notes and retain your credit unimpaired." " But my stock will not sell here. It is foi another market." " That must be sold off. Go home, and close up everything in the quickest possible time ; collect as close as you can, and then come here. In the meantime I will look out for a good store, where you can open with a fresh stock of goods. By forcing sales, you will, as a natural consequence, have to make sacrifices ; but then you will get in a good deal of ready cash, the importance of which you know as well as myself." Wieland was not carried away at once by this proposition ; but Riddell met every objsction, and pointed out the advantages of a city over a country business, in such strong colors, that he at last yielded, and announced his intention of closing up where he was and removing to the city. To every one who alluded to the subject, Riddell spoke in terms of approval, and said that Wieland was a man of the right stamp, and would soon make his weight felt in the community HOW THINGS ARK SOMETIMES DONE 71 When Wieland at last came, Riddell sold hitn goods freely, and others, on the strength of his example, did ;hu same. For four or five months, the victim, for such in reality he was to be, had free play, and then Riddell began to draw in with a steady hand. He required heavier and heavier reduction upon each re newal of the old account, and managed to diminish the amount of sales to Wieland, and drive him to other houses for the purchase of goods. This went on until, finally, Riddell declined selling him at all, but was very care ful not to let a whisper of the fact get wind. The cause of this change Wieland could not at first understand. He was too honest him self to suspect the real truth, and hurt that one who had so befriended him, and towards whom he entertained such a lively feeling of gratitude, should, from any cause, alter the good opinion he had once held. What added still more to the pain he felt, was the fact, that he was get ting once more embarrassed, and could not see clearly his way through his difficulties. Half of the amount originally due Riddell had been paid, and the new indebtedness was but small, the bulk of Wieland 's purchases, for over si* months, having been from other houses. Painful as it was, poor Wieland. no 7 72 MA KIN .i HASTE TO BF. RICH. long time after Riddell had virtually refused to credit him any longer, was obliged to ask an extension of the entire balance of the old in debtedness, which stood at five thousand dol lars. " Renew the whole ! It is out of the ques tion, Mr. Wieland," replied Riddell, expressing surprise at such a proposition. " The fact is, I am so pressed for money, that I don't see how I can help you at all. Your note is dis counted, and, therefore, beyond my control. I was compelled to realize on it. It is un fortunate, but there is no help for it." " You know that I can't pay the whole amount of your note, Mr. Riddell," said the distressed debtor. " How should I know it^ But that is nei ther here nor there. The paper has been dis counted, and I shall not be able to lift it." " You can get my note through bank again." " While this remains unpaid, it would be folly to offer your paper again." " If I can succeed in borrowing the amount required," said Wieland, after thinking hur riedly for a moment, " would you be willing, after the present note is lifted, to offer another for, say, four thousand five hundred dollars, and hand me the proceeds ?" HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. 73 " Certainly," was the prompt answer. " Is there a reasonable hope that the dis- will be obtained ?" " I think so." " It will not do to have any uncertainty in a matter like this, Mr. Riddell." " I can obtain the money on your note without doubt. I always get what I ask for." With this assurance, Wieland borrowed j from various sources, enough to lift his note. On the day after it was taken up, he called upon Riddell with a new note at sixty days for four thousand five hundred dollars. " When will it be done r" he asked. " The discount day in the bank where I in tend offering it, is day after to-morrow." " On Saturday, then, I can get the money ?" " Yes, I presume so." There was something in Riddell's manner that Wieland did not like. After he went out, the " enterprising " young merchant laid the note carefully away in a great pocket-book, where it remained, undisturbed, until Saturday morning. Wieland came in about nine o'clock with a look of anxiety on his face. " Have you got the money for me, Mr Riddell," he said " I am sorry to say no, Mr. Wieland,'' was 74 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. replied. " Most unexpectedly to me, your note was thrown out. One of the directors, to whom I complained of the matter, said that the offerings yesterday were three times as large as they could venture to discount." Poor Wieland became very pale, and with a feeling of hopelessness, dropped into a chair. " Two-thirds of the amount boriowed must be returned to-day," he said. " It is positively promised." " I'm sorry; but cannot help it," coldly res ponded Riddell. " Two thousand belong to Bradford and Jordan. Jordan let me have it on the express assurance that I would return it. this morning He said it was money that had been accumu lating for some time to pay a note given for machinery that falls due to-day. I would not fail in my promise for the world. It might prove their ruin." " That's bad," remarked Riddell, " very bad. Jordan did uot act wisely." " He acted on the strength of your assurance to me that my note would be discounted." " But didn't he know, and didn't you know, that no positive calculation is to be made on a discount in bank J I could only offer your HOW THINGS ARE SOMETIMES DONE. 75 note ; I could not compel its passage through the board." " Will you offer it again r" asked Wieland. " Yes," was replied indifferently. " I have no objection to try it for you again ; but 1 have my doubts of being able to get it done. Money has become scarce all at once." " Mr. Riddell," said the unfortunate man, speaking with emphasis, " you must not leave me in this unhappy predicament. You must not suffer me to become the instrument of ruin to those who have generously assisted me in paying my indebtedness to you. Doubtless you can, if you will, lend me at least enough to return the amount borrowed of Bradford and Jordan, and repay yourself when my note is discounted." "I don't know," replied Riddell, with the air of a man who felt offended, " the right you have to apeak in this way to me. I have done all I promised to do, and that is everything you have to expect." " You will not, then, lend me enough to return what is due to Bradford and Jordan ?" gaid Wieland. " I have use for all my money," was returned coldly. " Mr. Riddell," said the distressed, yet in- ~i6 jtfAiUNU HASTE TO BE RICH. dignant Wieland, wlio felt that ho was betrayed, wt if 1 am made the instrument of injury to these men, you will be the guilty cause." " Mr. Wieland," returned Riddell, opening his desk as he spoke and taking therefrom a slip of paper, " here is your note ; take it. The thanks I get for having stood your friend, is insult." " God help all who expect to live by your friendship," replied Wieland with bitterness, as he took the little piece of paper and looked at it attentively for a moment. " It is all plain now. My note has never been in bank." " It is false !" exclaimed Riddell, while a flush that betrayed his perfidy mantled his face. " I have double evidence of what I affirm," replied Wieland, looking sternly upon the man who had held him up until he 'could secure his own, and then let him fall without a sigh over his ruin. " Basely betrayed !" he added " basely betrayed ; and under the guise of sympathy !" " Will you please to leave my store, sir, said Riddell, recovering his self-possession. Wieland hesitated a moment, as if he were about to add something more ; but feeling, per haps, the utter folly of giving further vent to what was in his mind, he turned away quickly INJURY TO AN OLD FRIEND. 77 and left the store. As he retired, Riddell mut tered : " That's all over. My ten thousand dollars are safe. Let others look to their own inte rests. I'm sorry for my old friend Jordan ; but I can't help it. He should know better than to lend so much money to a man about whose real standing he knew nothing. But it's like him." He did not name Bradford, even mentally ; but rather forced himself not to think of him at all. Heartless as he was, he could not bear the thought of Anne's father to come into his mind, and with it, the consciousness that, in securing his own selfish ends, he had again doue him an injury. CHAPTER VIII. INJURY TO AN OLD FRIEND. c DOES Wieland owe you anything ?" asked a neighbor, coming into Riddell's store, two or three days after the occurrence mentioned at the close of the last chapter had taken place. " Not a dollar " 78 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH ' Indeed ! I thought he was into you deepei than into any one else." " Has he gone by the board ?" " Yes. He stopped yesterday ; and owes, J am told, six or eight thousand dollars borrowed money." "So much?" " And what is worse, has made no provision for it. "I loaned him fifteen hundred dollars last week; and Bradford and Jordan loaned him two thousand. We shall, I fear, not get a cent. I am more sorry for Bradford and Jordan than for myself. They had enlarged their manufactory, by the addition of new and more extensive machinery, for a part of which their note was out and due last Saturday. The two thousand loaned to Wieland had been laid by to meet the note. At theMast moment, Wieland informed them that he could not re turn what he had borrowed. There was no re source, and the note laid over. I am afraid it will go hard with them. Wieland tells some cock-and-a-bull story about your disappointing him in a discount, but nobody believes him." "Humph! Does he indeed!" with an air of contempt. " So much for trying to obligo the man. 1 offered a note for him last Friday, but it was thrown out. The next time I do a INJURY TO AN OLD FRIEND. 79 good turn for any one, he will appreciate it. And so he has really bursted up. Well, it's no more than I have been expecting for some time I knew he would ruin himself, when he was so foolish as to come to the city." " I understand that he says you advised him to come." " I advised him ? Preposterous ! Why should I advise him ?" " When a man fails, he very naturally tries to throw the blame on somebody." " Of course. Well, let him talk. It will harm no one in the end, and may be some re lief to him." " It wont pay me my fifteen hundred dol lars, though. If I were as clear of him as you are, he might talk about me until doomsday." " Words break no bones. Poor devil ! Our city trade used him up in double quick time How much will he divide ?" " Not twenty cents on the dollar." " Where has every thing gone ?" " Gracious knows It's gone ; and that is all that will ever be known, I'm thinking." " He may have taken care of himself," was the outrageous suggestion of Riddell. "No," replied the mercantile friend, "I will not believe that. Wieland may hava 80 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH erred, may have done business blindly madly, if you will but he is no deliberate villain Any man of common observation will tell you that." " I hope not," was returned in tones that in volved a doubt. Poor Wieland had indeed failed, as Riddell knew he must. He had lured him to the city by false promises, with the sole end of holding him up until he could get his ten thousand dol lars, and then letting him fall with a crash, indif ferent who might suffer, so he secured his own. He had succeeded in his iniquitous scheme but too well. Others were induced to credit Wie land through his example, and to continue the credit, even while he was steadily and rapidly withdrawing his sustaining arms from around his unfortunate debtor. From fifty to sixty per cent, of their claims would have been real ized by all the creditors of Wieland, had he closed up business at the time he proposed do ing so, and he could have obtained light credits still enabling him to start again in a small way, and support his family. But as it was, through losses sustained in forcing off his old stock, by the payment of Riddell cent per cent of the amount due him, and from other causes attend ant upon his embarrassed position, he was not INJUR1T TO AN OLD FRiEND. 81 nbla to divide among his creditors over eigh teen cents on the dollar, and retired from view hopelessly ruined, and with tho smiting consci ousness that he had suffered himself to be duped to the injury of the great bulk of his creditors. Among these was the father of Anne Brad ford, and the old friend of Riddell, who lost over fifteen hundred dollars, money loaned to go into the pocket of the young " enterprising" money-maMng merchant. About a year after Jordan became the hus- ban 1 of Maria Bradford, the father of his wife proposed to the young man to give up his situ ation as a clerk, invest a thousand dollars that he had saved in his business, and join him as partner in its labor and profit. After due de liberation Jordan accepted the offer, and took charge of the buying and selling department, while Mr. Bradford gave his entire attention to the manufactory. The good results of this system were soon apparent in a greater produc tiveness at the mill, and better sales of what was made. The young man, in his thorough acquaintance with merchandising, brought into the establishment just what was needed, and loft Mr. Bradford, who was fit for a manufac turer, and nothing else, to centre all his thoughts upon his cards, spindbs. and looms. 82 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. The first and second years of this new sys tem showed most encouraging results, and gava to Jordan an actual profit in the business of over two thousand dollars. At the end of the third year, they ventured upon considerable, improvements, and the introduction of new, better, and more extensive machinery. Pay ing for these kept them very close, but they managed everything with such prudence, and looked a-head with such nice forethought, thai all would have come out right, but for the un fortunate loan to Wieland, which came very near breaking them down, small a matter as it might appear to be. Like most of those around them, a good credit was the main-stay of their business. They made their heaviest purchases of raw material on time, and as they had never asked an extension nor a loan of money from any of the merchants with whom they dealt, their credit was good to double the amount for which they used it. For nearly a month be fore the due day of the last note given for ma chinery, amounting to two thousand dollars, the money for lifting it had been in bank. Two or three days before the payment was to be made, Wieland, with whom Jordan had become ac- juainted, pressed hard for a temporary loan, assuring the latter that on the day he had use INJURY TO AN OLD FRIEND. 83 for the money, he would receive between four and five thousand dollars. Knowing nothing of Wieland's peculiar circumstances, and not doubting in the hast that he would be perfectly able to return the amount, Jordan loaned him two thousand dollars. After the dreadful discovery made by Wie- laud that Riddell had betrayed him into bor rowing five thousand dollars to lift his note, and then deserted him, he lost his presence of mind, and so clearly exhibited the distress he felt, that all to whom he applied for loans to enable him to replace the sum due Bradford and Jor dan, took the alarm, and deemed it prudent to be very short of funds. Half distracted, at two o'clock he called upon Jordan, who had several times sent to him during the day, and, almost with tears related the story of his cruel disappointment. The pressing nature of Jor dan's own affairs, left him no time to sympa thize with Wieland. He called upon one or two of their customers, and tried to borrow enough to lift the note, but failed in obtaining more than a frw hundred dollars. The holder of the paper did not live in the city, and no application could, therefore, be made to him to have it withdrawn from the bank. There was no help for it. The note had to lie over 8 84 MAKING HA6TE TO BE fUCH. and be protested. This was of course soon known, and further credit immediately refused by their old friends. In this strait, Mr. Brad ford went to a firm with which he had been doing business for twenty years, and gave the senior partner therein a plain history of the matter, which was clearly understood. Money was advanced to lift the dishonored paper, and such specific representations made in the quar ters desired as restored confidence, and Brad ford and Jordan went on as usual, the latter resolved in future to look a little more nar rowly into what he was doing. It was thus, in the eager spirit of gain which ruled him, that Riddell, seeking to get his own, utterly regardless of others' interests, came nearly dashing his early friend to the earth, and adding another injury to the deeper one Mr. Bradford had already sustained at his hands. He knew all this, and could have wished it otherwise, but it did not trouble him very deeply. He had managed to save himself from loss, and, in doing this, attained his highest wish in the matter. Moreover, he thought himself shrewder, and more wide awake than his neighbors, and indulged a little quiet exultation in the thought. As to the doubtful integrity involved in the matter, that never occurred to .NEW A*-J> BOLDER SCHEMV.S. Hi) him. The cloctrim that "all is fair in trade," he thought a very good one, and generally acted np to its spirit ; and the motto, " Every one for himself," was mentally repeated almost daily Thus was his ruling love entering more and more into his thoughts and acts, and overshadow ing and holding in subjection all other affec tions of the mind not in agreement therewith CHAPTER IX. NEW AND BOLDER SCHEMES. INSTEAD of tracing the course of Riddell, step by step, during the first five years that elapsed after his marriage, we will pass over that period of time, and see what progress he has made. When we left him, he was doing business to the amount of about sixty thousand dollars a year ; now his annual sales are not less than a hundred and fifty thousand, and he is looked upon, by some, as one of the most shrewd, enterprising, and fortunate merchants in the city. His style of living is costly and elegant, and he gives, every year, two or three brilliant entertainments. But we will look 86 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. deeper than the surface. We will go with him behind the scenes, and let the reader see the wheels and ropes by which the beautiful and attractive movements designed for the public eye are made. Those who closely observed Mr. Riddell at this time, saw that, amid all his prosperity, he was far from having a quiet spirit. At home, there was no sweet fireside circle ; for matters of business so engrossed his thoughts and his time, that he rarely spent an hour, day or even ing, with his wife, who loving -him devotedly, pined for some more marked return of love than she ever received. It was evident that he rarely thought of the dear ones at home ; his affection was not there, and where the love is not, you will rarely find the thought. Money projects gain, gain, gain engrossed every power of his mind. And yet, his wife was beau tiful, accomplished, and devotedly attached to him, and his two children were as sweet young creatures as a father could wish to fold joyfully in his arms. But where money is the God we serve, there can be no divided worship. The man who is making haste to be rich, has neither time nor taste for pure domestic joys. Even while he sits by his wife, or holds his prattling boy upon his knee, he is thinking of the ways NEW AND BOLDER SCHEMES. 87 and means of getting gold And thus it was with Riddell. Instead of being satisfied with the gain of this year, he was sagely anticipating the increased gain of the next. What he had, was lightly esteemed, except as the means of helping him to get what he had not. In " financiering" matters, Riddell had gone pretty deeply, and these were occupying a larger portion of his thoughts ; more than could well be spared from his business. Be sides being director in a bank, he had become President in an Insurance Company, that dealt in post-notes pretty extensively, and more or less intimately connected with several money schemes that had but little intrinsic regard to the public good, although apparently originated for no other end. All these he made subser vient, as far as it lay in his power to do so, tc his own interest. Partridge he had found a shrewd schemer, and as bold as shrewd ; walking erect when few men would venture to creep : and he trodc fearlessly by his side, more the tool of the older and deeper schemer, than he for a single moment imagined. One day, about the time we introduce Rid dell again to the reader, he sate in the private room of Partridge, after dinner, engaged in earnest conversation, with the individual who 8* 88 MAKING II AST H Tt BE RICH had initiated him into tho mysteries of " finau- ciering." " There is one thing that you must do, Rid- djll," said Partridge ; " it ought to have been done years ago." " What is that ?" " Assume more style." " It costs me, now, five or six thousand dol lars a year to live." a No matter. Build or buy a fine house, and let some noise be made about it. This will impress the public more deeply with your substantiality than anything you can do. The reputation of having made a handsome fortune in so short a time, will give you a credit far beyond what you now enjoy, and, of course, the use of money ad libitum." " But think how much actual money a splen did house and a corresponding style of living will eat up. That must also be taken into the account." " I am perfectly aware of this. But, don't you know that you can get back the major part of your money by mortgaging your house, a fact that one in a hundred will not know You may depend upon it, Riddell, it is of the first importance to you to put forth as many palpable evidences of wealth as possible. You NEW AND BOLDER .SCHEMES. 89 know that everything depends upon your sus taining an unimpaired credit. Let a breath of suspicion blow upon that at any time within the next five years for it will take at least that time for you to make your large credit rest upon a real basis and you are gone." " Of that, Mr. Partridge, I am too well con vinced," replied Riddcll, with some seriousness of manner. " I sometimes think it would have turned out better for me in the end, if I had kept my business within a safer limit, and been content with getting rich more slowly as well as more surely !" " You remember that I cautioned you in the beginning, of the danger you would have to encounter," said Partridge. 11 1 know. But I was of too impatient a temper to plod along slowly, adding cent to cent and dollar to dollar, like the mass around me. Money, I knew, was to be made rapidly, by those who had the foresight, the skill, and the boldness to work with the material that was around them." " It will not do to look back now, Riddell. Keep your eyes steadily in advance, and watch narrowly the whole troop of approaching cir cumstances, or you will trip in a moment when you least dream that an obstruction lies iu youi 90 MAKING' HASTE TO BE RICH path. You have walked with steady steps thus far ; do not falter now. " " Don't misunderstand me," said Riddell, speaking in a different tone. u 1 have really no wish to look back. I spoke from a momen tary impression." " Send back, instantly, all such impressions from whence they came. You must not, now, doubt, hesitate, or fear, for the space of an in stant. You are treading a narrow path, but there is an El Dorado at its termination. Think of this, hope, and be strong. Take my advice, and build yourself a splendid mansion. Set about it at once. First purchase a good lot, and I'll get Gray to notice in his paper the fact that ' Franklin Riddell, Esq., one of our wealthy and enterprising merchants, has just bought that eligible site for a dwelling in street, and intends erecting thereon, immedi ately, a splendid mansion, that will be an orna ment to our city.' This will have its effect. Then let your builder go to work, and as speed ily as possible get the shell above ground, and BO far advanced that the design can be seen. Another blast through Gray's newspaper, will tell, wonderfully, at this stage of affairs. De pend upon it, that by the time your elegant residence is completed, and you ready to take NEW AND BOLDER SCI. EMUS. 91 possession, with your family, your name will be good for just as much money as you may hap pen to want." "But are there not men in the community who have shrewdness enough to see through all this?" " Yes. And men who will see through it all ; and, what is more, express their opinions freely." '* And ruin all." " Very far from it. Few, if any, will believe them. Your architect, your builder, your workmen, will be paid promptly ; and this can not be done without money. The fact that the money is forthcoming at every demand will be sufficient evidence of your ability. All that you have to do, is to be very sure that the channel through which the money comes is not seen. Mere talk does no harm. Mere suspicion hurts no one's credit. But once let the narrow basis upon which the latter rests be seen, and a breath may destroy it. The deeper and more concealed we work, the more surely will our ends be accomplished." " But taere is one thing to be considered," said Riddcll, who was beginning to see tilings less clearly than before. In fact, Partridge had carried him on so rapidly for some time, that 92 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. he had been unable to take accurate observation of the way along which he had come, nor fully to understand the nature of the ground upon which he was standing. " But there is one thing to be considered. Money, as you justly say, must be forthcoming, if I go to building. Forty, fifty, or sixty thousand dollars, abstracted from my present business and money opera tions, will inevitably swamp me, unless some new and enlarged sources for the attainment of capital be opened.'' " I am aware of that. But your ability to get capital may be enlarged." "How?" '' Let me divulge a new scheme over which I have been pondering for some months. I shall need your co-operation ; but that co operation will give you just what you want, larger money-facilities. Are you prepared for a bolder step than any yet taken r" 11 1 am, if it gives ordinary promise of a rich harvest." " You shall judge for yourself. You are aware that the Eagleton Bank failed two yeara ago, and that its stock is not worth five dollars a share ?" Yes." " Its charter remains inviolate, and is per- NEW AND BOLDEtt SCHEMES. 93 pctual. Luckily, no clause making the suspen sion of specie payment a forfeiture, was intro duced. Now, 1 propose to unite with you and two or three others upon whom we can fully calculate, and get the whole of this stock into our possession. The capital is two hundred thousand dollars. As soon as we commence buying up the depreciated scrip, it will begin to rise, but will not reach above twenty dollars a share before we have nearly all of it in our hands. So that, for about twenty thousand dollars, we can get possession of the bank, and set it going once more. Eagleton, you know, is a hundred miles from here, with a stage route nearly the whole way. Little or no business is done in the neighborhood. In fact a bank waa never wanted there. As a natural consequence, the issue of bills would find a circulation at a distance ; the largest amount in this city, where we could have such arrangements for redemp tion, as would keep it from finding its way, except in small quantities, to Eagleton. A specie basis of ten thousand dollars would bo ample. All the officers needed would be a president and cashier, and these we could select and send down. They would be, of couise, men whom we could bind to us by interest. 1 know where to put my hand upon them. It 34 MAKING HASfE TO BE KICH. would take a short time to establish confidence iu the bank, but there are ways of doing that. As soon, however, as the notes of the Eagleton Bank began to go freely, we would begin to derive a benefit, for we would be the real is suers of them." " But you forget," said Riddell, " that the moment the bank resumes, the old note hold ers and depositors will come in.'' "No; I don't forget that," replied Par tridge. " There were not five thousand dol lars on deposit when the bank failed. It had been run upon by depositors for a week before it suspended. Of this amount one half has since been paid." " But there was a large circulation out at the time." " Not so large as many supposed. Four- fifths of it were bought up at a discount by those who owed the bank, and paid in in liquidation of the dues against them : so that but a small balance is out. Now look at the other side. For twenty thousand dollars we get stock, worth at par value, two hundred thousand dollars. By proper management, this scrip may bo made to stand in the stock market at from eighty cents to par, thus affording collateral security for loans nearly equal to the moneyed NEW AND BOLDER SCHEMES 95 value of the whole capital of the bank say at least ono hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You know what you can do in this way, and so do I. Besides, it will be possible to get out the bills of the bank to a large amount. My calculation is, to push the circulation until it reaches half a million. The president and cashier, understand, are to be men fully in our interest ; men not over scrupulous, nor trou bled with a very tender regard for the good of the much lauded, and much flattered, dear public. Do you see the matter now in its true light ?" "I do." " I thought you would see it. Your position in the ' Citizens' Bank,' in the ' Mutual In surance Company,' and in the ' Mutual Sav ings' Fund,' will enable you to play directly into our hands in carrying out the grand scheme. In fact, there might be a separate issue payable at the ' Mutual Savings' Fund,' which would afford that institution a medium of circulation, and at the same time give con fidence to the entire issue of the Eagleton Bank. This is a good thought." The " Mutual Savings' Fund," here alluded to, was an institution somewhat similar to a Savings" Bank, in which weekly deposits of 9 9S MAKING HASTE TO B RICH from two to ten dollars were received, to be converted into stock whenever the sum amount ed to the price of a share. The depositors were, mostly, persons in moderate circumstan ces, to whom were held out the prospect of liberal dividends on the profits of the institu tion, which received, likewise, regular business deposits, and discounted upon its funds. Rid- dell held a position of influence in this Savings' Fund Society, from which the Legislature, in granting a charter, had wisely withheld the privilege of issuing its "promises to pay ;" and this position, Partridge was quick to perceive, would enable him to draw the institution into an arrangement of great importance to the credit of the Eagleton Bank. 11 A good thought, truly," replied Riddell to the last remark of Partridge. " Without doubt, if the scheme you propose can be car ried through, we may gain such an advanced position, by the aid of the Eagleton Bank, aa to defy any efforts to break us down." " Assuredly so. I saw that at the first blush." " It is a grand project !" said Riddell, rising and walking about the floor, perfectly elated with the idea of the ease with which he might, in conjunction with two or three others as little NEW AND BOLDER SCHEMES. 9*7 scrupulous as himself, get the control of hun dreds of thousands of dollars. Up to this time, Riddell had struggled hard to repress all feelings of elation. Indeed, the necessity which had all along existed for a most earnest application of himself to the ways and means of raising money, in order to pre serve his business in its integrity ; and the doubts that often hung over the future, had kept down a feeling of self-congratulation. But now he saw such a golden harvest before him, all ripe for the sickle, that, like a bird upon whom the sunshine falls suddenly, he could not Tefrain from giving vent to his feel ings of delight. "Capital! capital! capital!" ho ejaculated, as he walked the floor, and the whole idea of the thing grew larger before the eyes of his mind. " I wonder no one has thought of this before." " Others have thought of it, no doubt. But not all who are able to see clearly the ways and means of making money, have the boldness to enter upon their execution. Don't forget, Riddell, that, in carrying out this plan, great coolness, forethought, and prudence will be re quired. There must be no fake steps made ; no faltering in a moment of alarm and danger . 98 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. no betrayal of weakness, nor sacrifice jf inte rest to feeling, at any point. The end to be attained is all we have to loqk at. Moreover, the fewer we have in our confidence the better. Our mercantile transactions must go on as usual, and we must devote enough time to them to keep all in a healthy condition, lest entan glements there bring ruin into our other and really more, important interests." All this Riddell saw clearly enough, and he calmed down his buoyant spirits. " With such a magnificent project to bo car ried out, as the one I have introduced," added Partridge, " it is necessary that the real actors, although the public may not fully understand their relation to the matter, should be men who are looked upon as possessing undoubted wealth. For, in case of an emergency, it might be necessary to raise, on their credit alone, vast sums of money, to sustain the splen did scheme of profit they had united to carry through. You are now looked upon as an en terprising young merchant, who has made -a good deal of money ; but, until you assume an imposing style of living, such as I have sug gested, you will not make the desired impres sion on the public mind. Build an elegant house- th.p Eagleton Bank will prive ample A FINANCIERING OPERATION. 99 means and to spare order a splendid carriage and purchase a pair of horses at a thousand dollars a-piece. This will do more for you than if you were to dig from the earth an hun dred thousand dollars in gold." " I will do it," was the earnest reply of Rid dell. CHAPTER X. A FINANCIERING OPERATION. ENOUGH can be gathered from the last chap tor, to give the reader an idea of whither our young adventurer's steps were tending, and how completely the god of this world had blind ed his eyes. The legitimate results of a well- conducted business appeared, now, of little ac count ia his estimation, for a shorter road to wealth was before him. Through the advan tages which his connexion with moneyed insti tutions gave him, he had been able to command a good deal of capital, but nothing to what he now saw would flow into his hands, if the Eagle- ton Bank scheme could be fully realized. There was a time when he thought that fifty thousand dollars was a fortune. But now he 9* 100 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. felt that nothing short of hundreds of thousands would satisfy him. One thing, involved in his money schemes, gave him at times uneasiness. In stepping beyond the proper sphere of a mer chant, and coming into association with men whose business transactions were with money itself, he found it impossible not to get his own interests involved with theirs. There were so many wheels within wheels, interchanges, and appliances at points near and remote, to be made, in order to deceive, that he hardly know how he stood, or exactly how far he was so connected with otherp as to be in danger, were any tripping to take place. Shrewd as he was and Riddell was shrewd he was playing a game with men who understood quite as well as he did, if not better, what they were about ; and knew how to use him much more than they suffered him to use them. But he thought that he knew what he was about, and deemed him self wide enough awake to see that no one got a-head of him. And yet there were times when he sincercly.wished that he had never striven to push his business beyond a prudent limit, nor had had anything to do with banks or borrowed capital, when he had a clear appreciation of the dangerous position he occupied, and how an adverse breath nii^ht dash him to the earth. A FINANCIERING OPERATION. 101 How this was so, may be inferred from the fact, that he always had discounts and accom modations varying from sixty to eighty thou sand dollars, obtained, rn many cases, through the favor of others, for which favors he had generally to give a like return. Partridge would sometimes exchange notes with him generally for pretty heavy amounts ; but always did it in a way to make it appear simply as a favor to Riddell, although this was not, by any means, generally the case. And there yrere other friends of his, between whom and himself endorsements and note exchanges passed rather freely. In fact, ho found it impossible to get as much money as he wanted, without the aid of friends whose credit he could use, and for this he had to give a like return. When Riddell first started in business, it was with the wise resolution never to give nor ask an endorser. To be responsible for no one ; and to ask no one to be responsible for him. And in the articles of co-partnership between Alexander and himself, it had been specially provided, that the credit of the firm was in no case to be loaned. If, after he had virtually ejected his partner, Riddell. had been content with a safe and steady accumulation of money, he never would ha^e been tezaptad to depart 102 MAKIKJ HASTE TO BF RICH. from the prudent course at first adopted But the mania of getting rich fast took deeper hold of him. The capital upon which he was ope rating, cramped within such small bounds his ambitious spirit, that he grew restless and im patient. As a natural consequence, he drove his business so hard that it soon began to drive him ; and the necessity for larger means drove uim into a moneyed institution as a director, in the hope of being able to get more capital through the facilities his new position would give him. After this there was no stopping no looking back. One step opened the way for another ; and new allurements were pre sented with every new advancement. His rul ing love was fired with increasing ardor, and his cupidity tempted by promises of gain be yond anything yet realized. But, amid it all, he did not neglect his business ; still looking upon that as the surest way to independence, and throwing into it all the energy his larger command of means gave him. Still, his opera tions in trade were not marked by the shrewd ness that once characterized them, for the rea son that his command of money facilities made him bolder, and inspired him with more of the " nothing venture nothing gain" spirit than ha bad before possessed. Every inordinate love, A FINANCIERING OPERATION. 103 when permitted to come into full activity, blinds the intellect; and this is particularly the case with the inordinate love of gain. It is for this reason that so many men, after hav ing secured large fortunes, run into the mad dest schemes in their eager desire for greater wealth, and make shipwreck of everything not excepting a good name and a good con science. A few more conferences with Partridge, and one or two others admitted into their counsels, determined the matter in regard to the Eagle- ton Bank. Immediate measures were taken to get possession of the stock, which was accom plished by means not necessary 1o detail here, and the broken concern galvanized into the ap pearance of new and healthy life. Certain brokers were employed to advertise for Eagle- ton Bank paper at three-quarters per cent, dis count, while others loaned it at short dates and received par funds in return. None but those immediately interested, knew of Riddell's con nexion with the bank, yet some wondered that he had so much of its paper on hand. If a neighbor, on a money-hunting errand, stepped in, and said k ' Have you anything over to-day, Riddell ?" His usual reply was 104 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH '* I have a few hundreds in Eagleton notes, which you can have for a week, if that will do you any good." Or, if a bill was to he paid, the Eagleton Bank notes were pushed off, provided they would be received. The other partners in this high handed fraud upon the public, were equally active in con verting their share of the bills obtained from the bank into something that looked in their eyes more like money or property. The parties in this great scheme were in number four, and their first act, after getting the bank afloat, was to make each, a stock note, and borrow thereon from the bank, thirty thousand dollars a piece of its paper, which they were to put into cir culation as best they could. Of the proceeds of this, five thousand dollars were to be con verted by each into specie, or par funds, mak ing twenty thousand dollars in all, and the same transmitted to Eagleton, as a basis for the bank to rest upon. This, with what would come directly into the institution through the agencies established by the officers of the bank, in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, it was be lieved would keep it safe, as it lay far off, in a quiet valley, remote from business and difficult of access. A FINANCIERING OPERATION. lOil The next thing was for Partridge, Riddell & Co. to borrow equal amounts from the bank, on their individual notes. These notes, when they fell due, were merely renewed. Even the formality of taking them up was not ob served. Things went on smoothly. The first sur prise and doubt that passed over the public mind died away. Confidence in the resusci tated bank gradually took hold of the mass, and in less than a twelve month, the bills were re garded with as little suspicion as if the peo ple could look into the vaults of the bank and see them filled with gold. During this time, Riddell had so managed affairs, as to induce the directors of the " Mutual Savings' Fund" to apply to the President and Directors (!) oi the Eagleton Bank for a special issue of bills, payable at their counter, for which they offered ample security, and a handsome per centage. The President and Directors were, of course, all prepared for this ; and of course they grant ed the request. This new issue, " payable at the Office of the Mutual Savings' Fund in ," amounted to one hundred thousand dollars. It must not be supposed that the security obtained from the " Mutual Savings' Fund " 106 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. was a dead letter to our bankers. Very far from it. It was something that, while it ro- inained nominally in possession of the " fund," could be hypothecated. And it was hypothe cated, and from sixty to eighty thousand dollars borrowed thereon. In the meantime, Riddell had commenced building on a scale far more elegant and costly than had at first been contemplated. When he mentioned to his wife what he designed doing, she begged him, earnestly, to bo con tented with their present style. " We do not enjoy what we already possess," she said. " Only give me more of your society, and let me see your face brighten when you come home, as it used to brighten, and I will be content with far less than we now have Here is elegance, dear husband, beyond what my heart desires ; elegance that your eyes do not seem to see nor care for. Why, then, seek for anything beyond ? It will bring care, but no enjoyment." " There is an end in view, Blanche ; an end beyond what is personal to ourselves in the splendid residence I shall build." " There can be only one right end, dear, for which a man should build himself a costly house ; and in that end is involved nothing that A FINANCIERING OPERATION. 107 does not^ appertain to domestic comfort and hospitality." Mrs. Riddell spoke earnestly, while her eyes were fixed tenderly, yet with a serious expres sion, upon her husband's face. " You are a woman, Blanche," returned Riddell, half lightly, half chidingly, " and can not see how, in our struggles with the world, we have to do a hundred things only for the sake of appearances. Domestic comfort and hospitality are not involved in my purposes in regard to building, and the assumption of a more imposing style of living. Heaven knows, as you say, that I don't enjoy what I have !" " My husband," said Blanche, more serious ly than before, " it is a truth, and one that we ought to ponder well, that only what is done from a right end brings the desired result. To build an elegant house, and assume an imposing style of living, merely for the sake of appear ances, must result in disappointment." " It is not for mere appearances, Blanche," returned Riddell, who did not understand his wife half so well as the few words he had uttered enabled her to understand him. u No ; far from it. As to the mere appearance of pos sessing great wealth, I care nothing for that. But, it is necessary, in order to impress the 10 108 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. minds of the public with my substantiality, thai I assume the appearance of a man of large pro perty. Men judge from appearances. Fifty thousand dollars, well laid out, will give rae the command of a hundred and fifty thousand dol lars. You understand now, do you not, Blanche." Mrs. Riddell looked surprised and bewil dered. " In other words, Blanche," resumed her husband, " I must deceive the public by the appearance of being really a richer man than 1 am ; this will so enlarge my credit, that I can gain what I at first only seem to possess. This has been the case all along. I was not really justified by the state of my business in assuming, when we did, our present style of living, but the result has been what I expected. My credit instantly became better, and I was soon in a condition to support a far more costly style. This is a strange world, Blanche ; and while we are in it we must do as it does. If people will be humbugged, why we must only humbug them ; that's all." A self complacent smile wreathed about the face of Riddell ; but it was met by no answer ing smile from the sweet lips of his wife, whose heart was chilled by s > strange and unexpected A FINANCIERING OPERATION. 109 an avowal on the part of her husband. Never before had he openly declared the principles upon which he was acting, and her partial love for him had prevented her from seeing them herself. " Why do you look so grave, dear ?" Riddell asked, after looking for some moments on the sober, downcast face of his wife. The eyes of Blanche were instantly raised to his, and rested upon him with a steady expres sion that he did not comprehend, but which dis turbed him. " Surely my husband cannot be in earnest," she said. *' In what, Blanche ?" " In a deliberate purpose to deceive." " Nonsense, dear ! You are too serious. I do not mean, by deceiving the public, to wrong any one. Every man has, to a certain extent, to assume false appearances. It is the only road to success in the world. I have found it necessary to do so from the first." "You?" The tone and look with which this single word was uttered, warned Riddell that he had said too much. " We won't talk any more about this, Blanche," he replied quickly ; " I see that I 1 10 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. am not fully understood. Far be it from me to meditate wrong to any one." The expression of his voice, in the last sen- tense, indicated that he was hurt hy the covert rebuke of his wife. This she was quick to per ceive. Without replying, she leaned her head against him, and endeavored to conceal the tears that came springing to her eyes. But he felt the deep heaving of her bosom, and knew that she was painfully disturbed. " Blanche," he said in a serious voice, " you must be willing to think that I will do right The intercourse of the drawing-room and the intercourse of the business world are far differ ent. In the former, there is little or nothing at stake, and we may afford to be frank, open, and deferential to others ; but, in the business world, everything is at stake, and the code of the drawing-room will not do. Men cease, in fact, to be gentlemen here. One defers not to another, nor speaks the real purpose of his mind. Were he to do so, he would be driven to the wall in a day, for every man would see his cards, and beat him in the first game. Why, if I were to publish from the house-top the exact state of my business, and let the public know precisely what I was worth, I wouldn't be able to keep my head above water for a month." A FINANCIERING OPERATION. Ill Riddell did not know how the heart of his wife trembled to its very centre, as he made the declaration. She took his words far more literally than he had intended her to take them ; and, from that hour, lived in the daily fear of some impending evil. Her husband's avowal of his purposes had taken a veil from her eyes, and, in one whom she had so tenderly loved for years, she saw something from which her better heart turned shrinkingly away. It was not a fear of the loss of wealth that chilled the heart of Mrs. Riddell. It was a dim fear of the loss of something else of honor and a good name. By the side of her husband, she felt that she could stand up bravely in any reverse, and bear with him any trials, so that no finger could point to a blot upon his integrity, and no busy tongue pro claim his dishonor. But, with the instinct of an upright mind, she saw that the path he was treading was not only beset with many tempta tions, but that he was in imminent danger of being drawn aside by their false allurements. With what a feeling of anxiety she saw her husband commence the erection of his elegant mansion, and noted its progress, may well be conceived. In spite of all her efforts to drive Uie impression from her mind, she never looked 10* 112 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. upon the beautiful edifice, as its imposing front gradually lifted itself up, and stood forth to the admiring eyes of thousands, without feeling that it was to be a monument to their shame and disgrace. And when, at last, she took posses sion of the princely dwelling, it was with hid den tears, not with open exultation. And yet she had her part to play, and could not turn from its assumption. Grand entertainments were given, and she could do no less than call light and smiles to her face, and pass amid the gay company that assembled in her splendid drawing-rooms, wearing a happy face. There were hundreds to envy her hundreds who never thought of looking below the surface, to pronounce her favored above the common lot. But, if they could have seen into her heart if they could have looked upon her alone in her chamber, themselves unseen, an hour be fore she appeared the smUing hostess, they would have thought and felt far differently. THE TEMPTATION AND FALL. 113 CHAPTER XI. THE TEMPTATION AND FALL. " ISN'T it wonderful how that young man has got along ? He is said to be worth fi re or six hundred thousand dollars " " It is, indeed. But it shows what may be done by industry and shrewdness. He is the closest man I ever dealt with. Somehow or other, he always manages to get the best side of a bargain." " That is the true way. He understands the right system." " To get rich but it isn't always an honest system." " Men don't generally stop to inquire about the honesty involved, when a good bargain is before them. Every man has to look out for himself. He that gets a-head as things are now, must have his eyes open." " I have heard it said, that Riddell talks of retiring from business, having made as much as he wants." " It would be a sign of discretion, if he were to do so." u I was ta'king with Partridge about him this 114 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. morning. He says that he has advised him to do it, and give place for others to come for ward that he has made enough." " Do you really think Riddell is worth as much as you intimated just now ?" " Partridge says he knows him to be worth every cent of it ; and he is generally correct in his estimations." " It seems almost incredible that so much money could have been made in so short a time." ' " Doesn't it. But Riddell is no common man." " True. He's one in a thousand." Thus were the many deceived by appear ances. Each of the confederates in the Eagle- ton Bank scheme, stood aloof from the others, as far as it was possible to do so, when the pub lic eye was upon them ; and each took pains to speak of the substantiality of the others, on all proper occasions. The mass were easily misled in this way, and echoed and re-rochoed the story of their great wealth. A few saw deeper, and confidently prophesied the end. But their words fell unheeded. They were alluded to as croakers, as those who were behind the spirit of the age ; as plodders in a beaten track. Dozens were tempted to depart from a safe and pru- THE TEMPTATION AND FALL ll!5 dent business, in the eager desire to get rich fast, with which the example of Kiddel had in spired them. But we must pursue the history of the man who was making haste to be rich. Freely as came into his hands the bills of the Eagleton Bank, and freely as he could pay them away, Riddell found that the erection of his elegant house, in which over eighty thousand dollars were expended, had made money mat ters exceedingly tight with him. On the day following the evening on which he had given a splendid entertainment to commemorate the fact of his taking possession of his new house, and to display its rich interior to the eyes of those who would look upon it all as another evidence of his immense wealth, he found himself with thirty thousand dollars to pay in the bank, and a balance in his favor of less than five thou sand dollars. On the day before, his payments had been ten thousand dollars, and in the week preceding, not less than an equal sum. In providing for these, following as they did, other heavy payments, Riddell had compassed nearly the whole of his available resources for the time, and he was, therefore, in a strait. If he had possessed any paper, even though drawn by the Man in the Moon, he could have negotiat ed it in son? a way. To Partridge he had al- 116 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. ready applied oftencr for an exchange of notea than he deemed prudent. In fact, some things had come to his observation that awakened doubts as to the real stability of his friend, and he felt more than an incipient desire to get lesa involved with him than he now was. " What is to be done ?" was the serious question he asked himself, as he sat at his desk, with a memorandum of the amount of money to be raised, written out upon a piece of paper and lying before him.. For the third or fourth time he looked through the great pocketbook, in which bills receivable were deposited, but there was little or nothing there. Then he thought whether he could not get from the Secretary of the " Union Insurance Company" post-notes of the Institution for twenty-five thousand dollars on his individual note alone. But the fear, lest the effort to do this would create a bad im pression, deterred him from attempting that mode of raising the money. It so happened, that, on the very evening before, he had been reading in an English Magazine, put into his hands by Partridge, Borne passages in an " Autobiography of John Ketch," which gave an account of the execu tion of the well kmwn Fauntleroy, Doctor THE TEMPTATION AND FALL. 117 Dodd, and others, for forger}. Strangely enough, he had not thought so much about the dreadful end to which these men had come, as about the peculiar nature of the means they used in obtaining money, which was to draw bills in, or endorse them with, fictitious names. While pondering over the difficulty he was in, and regretting the want of good business or other paper upon which he could procure mo ney, the ease with which a bill could be created, drawn in his favor, and signed by an imaginary name, occurred to him. He could make the note payable in his own city, and allege that the drawer was a merchant somewhere at the South or West. His own name would be suf ficient for its negotiation, so fair was his credit, and so potent was his influence in certain quar ters. The first presentation of the thought startled him, and he turned from it instantly. But, in turning, he turned to no other resource for getting out of the difficulty, and, therefore, his mind again came back to the suggestion, and he looked at it more steadily. In a very little while, the first instinctive reluctance thai he felt was not perceived ; and he began ear nestly to think of the matter, and to ponder the risk involved in this new system of monej getting. It was r ot, he aro-ued with himself 118 MAKINK HASTE TO BE RICH. forgery, for the name of no real perse 11 was used ; and, even in the event of discovery, which was by no means probable, could not ba considered forgery in the eye of the law. But, even after all the doubts and difficulties that started in his miud, had, by specious arguments, been removed, there still remained a strong, instinctive repugnance, to doing the thing proposed ; and again Riddell turned away, and earnestly sought for some other means of saving himself. None, however, pre sented themselves. It seemed, after this sug gestion came, that his mind lost its resources. Nothing that he could think of gave the least hope of affording relief. "It must be done!" he at length said to himself, with a desp orate resolution, and a feeling such as no man would twice be willing to endure. But the moment of bitterness was soon past, and in doing what he had resolved to do, he found less pain than he feared would attend it. Ten notes of various amounts, dates, and periods, were drawn, all signed, in a disguised hand, with imaginary names, and rendered payable at various banks in the city. Their Burn was thirty thousand dollars, Witli these he went to the secretary of f he " Union Insur- THE TEMPTATION AND FALL. 119 anco Company," of which he was president, and for them obtained three post notes of the company, payable in three, four, and six months. No difficulty was experienced in turning these post notes into cash. There were always plenty of money lenders glad to get them, at a trifle above legal interest. When Riddell, that evening, encountered the clear, steady look of his wife, his eyes drooped beneath her gaze. He felt that she must read what he had done in his countenance ; and he also felt, at that moment, that he would sooner have died than have her come into the possession of his secret. That nieht he dreamed that he was engaged with Fauntleroy in his great system of forgery, and a prey to the most distressing fears of de tection and consequent death Then his dream changed. He was Fauntleroy him self detected, imprisoned, tried, and sentenced to expiate his crime against society upon the gallows. In horror he awoke, great beads of perspiration standing upon his forehead. But familiarity with this new mode of " finan ciering" soon dispelled all such dreams. It worked so well that he grew almost careless about looking after the real paper which his large business was regularly bringing in, half 11 120 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. forgetting, in his blindness, that there would be no one but himself to provide for these ficti tious bills. Nor did he know that one of his compeers, the one who had put into his hands the maga zine containing the " autobiography of John Ketch," had his eyes upon him, and was closely watching his every movement. He had been playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse, and now he was meditating the end. Partridge knew exactly the ground upon which Riddell was standing, and saw that there was danger of his going by the board too soon, if means were not provided by which he could sustain himself for something like a year longer, and until he could withdraw from all connex ion with him involving risk, or likely to reflect discredit upon him as a man of integrity when the final crash came ; and come he knew it must. He was a greater villain than Riddell, because he had a cooler head and acted from a more deliberate purpose. He judged correctly when he supposed that the reading of Fauntle- roy'i forgeries would suggest to Riddell, in his difficulties, a similar mode of proceeding, and he took care to afford his victim an opportunity of perusing the history of which allusion has been made. THE TEMPTATION AND FALL. 121 Partridge naturally concluded, tint if Rid' dell manufactured paper, he would exchange it for post notes of the " Union Insurance Com pany," a thing he was in the habit of doing, regularly, with business and accommodation paper. Being a director in this company, and acquainted with all its doings, as well as, for reasons best known to himself, on familiar terms with the secretary, Partridge had the means of knowing, at all times, what paper the company received and held. It must be understood that the board gave the secretary discretionary power in case notes were offered when it was not sitting ; and this power was used to favor a few, Partridge, Riddell (who was president), and some others. This understood, it will not be a matter of wonder that Partridge detected the forgeries of Riddell on the very day they were made. Notwithstanding the care with which the ficti tious notes were drawn, with a view to prevent suspicion, there was, in die eyes of already awakened suspicion, unmistakable evidence of the fraud. But, in a matter like this, assurance sought to be doubly assured. With the utmost coolness, Partridge said to Riddell, on the vefy day he made the discovery of what had been done 122 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. " I observed a note this morning, left by you at the ' Union,' drawn by Jacob Ellerby. Who is he? I don t think I remember a merchant of that name. Does he belong to this city, or is he found in the country ?" Steadily wore the eyes of Partridge fixed upon Riddell as he said this, and he saw enough to more than confirm his suspicions. And yet an indifferent looker-on would have seen no thing worthy of remark. " He is a merchant of Lexington, Ky.," replied Riddell, without the slightest hesitation, " who has recently commenced business. His father is a rich farmer near Paris, so he states. He brought on such letters as induced me to give him credit. Was he not in your store ?" " No. I have not heard of him at all, wliich is the reason I asked. You are satisfied that he is good ?" " Perfectly." " I must try and find him out, then, the next time he visits our city, and sell him a bill myself." With this remark Partridge completely lulled to rest any doubt that his questions had awak- *"ened in the mind of Riddell. On that very day he wrote to a correspondent in Lexington, ask ing if there was a merchant there named El THE TEMPTATION AND FALL,. 123 lerby, and to a correspondent in Paris, Ky., to know if a farmer by the same name resided neai that town. In due time answers came from both places, and they were in the negative. " Very well," said Partridge to himself, coolly folding the last of these replies, and plac ing it in his desk ; " that settles the matter. I must disconnect myself with the young gen tleman as rapidly as I can, so as to be out of the reach of danger, when the brittle fabric of his fortune comes tumbling about him. He's a bold fellow, and deserves a better fate ; but he wanted prudence, and a mind that could see farther, in order to balance off his boldness. But it is the case with nine out of ten who ven ture upon these seas ; they carry more sail than ballast. I warned him of this in the beginning. His new system of money-raising will give him, for a time, if he pursues it, as I have no doubt he will, the command of plenty of means. He will want no n-ore exchanges of notes with me ; and four months will close up all transactions of that kind at present existing. After that J must sell off, quietly, my stock in the Eagletou Bank, which will net me, at eighty dollars a share, nearly forty thousand dollars; and increase my indebtedness to the utmost extent, which 1 can pay off in depreciated paper after the blow 124 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. up, and make , in that way, over a hundred It ou- sand dollars clear. This will be better than using any more of the ' Union ' post notes, with their confounded ' payable to order,' which makes every man who gets them respon sible. I believe I have used that concern to the extent dictated by prudence. As soon as Riddell is so well in for his Fauntleroy scheme, that he has no hope but in its continuance, 1 will withdraw from the ' Union' Board, and leave the control of affairs to others who will have to bear the odium of its mismanagement, when that goes down with the Eagleton Bank and ' Mutual Savings' Fund.' " Partridge mused thus, and laid his plans with the utmost coolness, while his partners in the great fraud that was to ruin dozens of men, and bring loss upon hundreds, had no suspicion of what was in his mind. CHAPTER XII. CRIME DISCOVERED. FROM fictitious names, the transition to real ones was easy. Riddell found that in raising the imm 3nse sums he constantly needed, he had CRIME DISCOVERED. 125 to use too large a quantity of his manufactured paper ; and that well known names in money circles must come in more freely, or suspicion of the real truth might be awakened. The rejection, at one of the banks, of about ten thousand dollars of bills, upon which his was the only name known, made the resort to some new expedient absolutely necessary. This expedient was the adding of real names as en dorsers to the fictitious notes. In all his schemes of money-making and money-raising, Riddell had never once asked for the loan of money or an endorsement from his father-in-law, Mr. Ackland. The first ad vance of thirty-five thousand dollars had nevei been returned. Very soon after the marriage of his daughter. Mr Ackland was led, from what he saw of RiJdell, to doubt his prudence as a man of business, and to remonstrate witt him against entering into certain transactions which were, in his mind, far too hazardous Some feeling on both sides was created in con sequence, and Riddell secretly resolved that he would never trouble Mr. Ackland for aid, noi ask his advice in any matter. And he kept his resolution. The father-in-law, however, attentively observed his movements, and bis eyes, gifted with more penetration than most oi 126 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH those around him, enabled him to see that alJ was not so substantial as appearances indicated. But he ventured upon no advice nor caution, for he had seen enough of the young man's character to satisfy him that it would do no good. The relation between Riddell and Mr. Ack- land being considered, it is a little remarkable that the first signature chosen by the former to give credit to his notes, was that of his father- in-law, which, after many trials, he succeeded in imitating so accurately, that few could have distinguished it from a genuine endorsement It was but natural to suppose that Mr. Ack- land would endorse the paper of his son-in- law, and when the notes bearing his endorse ment were presented for discount, the drawers' names were scarcely noted. They were always passed. But it so happened, that within a few weeks of the time when this bold step was taken, that a note of fifteen thousand dollars, thus endors ed, was passed off upon a private money-lender, who, soon after having a large sum of money to raise, passed it into a bank for discount where Mr. Ackland was director. " You will hardly object to that," remarked the Director ttho sat next to Mr. Ackland at CHIME DISCOVERED. 127 the long green table, as he passed him the note upon which his endorsement was forged. " Don't be too certain," was the smiling re ply, as he took the note, looked at the face, and then turned up the back. The moment he saw his own name and that of his son-in-law, his countenance changed so suddenly that every member of the Board was struck with the fact. " I suppose I ought not," he said, rallying himself, and passing the note along with a pow erful effort. But his voice had in it something that awakened suspicion. Before the note reached the last man at the table, it was quietly turned down and thrown out. But no word of comment accompanied the act. By a strong effort of self-control, Mr. Ackland was enabled to keep his place at the Board, and take his part in the transaction of business. But the moment he was beyond the observation of those in whom his manner had too evidently aroused a suspicion of the truth, he felt so weak that he deemed it prudent to step into a carriage and order himself driven home. On arriving at his house, he was so prostrated that he could hardly stand, and went tottering up to his chamber, By feigning sickness, he deceived his family in regard to the true cause of his sud- 128 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. den loss of physical strength. A little rest and quiet, he said, would soon make him feel bet ter ; and his wife, at his particular desire, after bringing him a glass of wine, left him alone, to think. It was a long time ere the disturbed elements of Mr. Ackland's mind were enough composed to enable him to think clearly, or at all to the purpose. A full hour elapsed, before he came to the conclusion to send for his son-in-law, and charge the fact of his guilt directly upon him, and represent the consequences likely to follow the rejection of the paper by the Board, the members of which must have inferred the true character of the paper, or they would never have thrown it out. He had arisen and pre pared a note, and was about ringing for a ser vant, when his wife entered with the intelli gence that three gentlemen were below and wished to see him. His heart misgave him as to their errand. " Tell them that I am too unwel 1 to bo seen to-day," he said. But this did not satisfy the visitors. They said their business was urgent, and sent up their names. They were men with whom ha had parted but an hour before. *' Say that I cannot be seen to-day," Mr. CklMtt DISCOVERED. 129 Ackknd returned for answer, 'and the deputa tion from the Directors of the Bank, foi such the men were, had to depart without the interview they had come to hold. Immediately after their departure, the note for Riddell was dispatched. Jt was of a tenor to startle him with vague fears, and cause him to obey the summons forthwith. When he entered the room where his father-in-law await ed him, the appearance of that individual in no way tended to quiet the uneasiness he felt. He was pale, and walking the floor in an agi tated manner. ", What has happened, Mr. Ackland ?" said the young man anxiously. " Why are you so much disturbed ?" Mr. Ackland fixed his eyes upon Riddell, steadily, and looked at him, until the gaze of the latter fell to the floor. " You needn't ask that, Franklin," he re plied, in a stern voice. " Look at your own wrong doings, and you have the answer." " My wrong doings, sir ?" The young man affected surprise and indignation, even while a tremor was passing thro.ugh his frame. " Disguise is useless. You are guilty of orime, and that crime is forgery !" At these words Riddell became instantly as 130 MAKING HASTE TO BE. RICH pale as death, and sank into a chair with a moan of irrepressible anguish. " Gracious Heaven ! And the husband of my child !" ejaculated Mr. Ackland. " Poor Blanche ! How will thy pure, true, loving breast be torn asunder ! Wretched man ! Was there not love enough in thy heart for her who has lain in thy bosom, to save thee ?" Riddell, with his hands over his face, had remained where he had sunk down powerless. He felt not only convicted, but condemned. The charge was unequivocal, and covered, in his mind, on first being made, the entire ground of his delinquency. A long silence followed, during which Mr. Ackland paced the floor with a heavy tread, and Riddell had time to recover himself and begin to think. Was Mr. Ackland acquainted with only a single instance of his wrong, or did he know all ? That was a ques tion of the utmost importance to know. And what was of still greater moment, was this knowledge confined to the breast of Mr. Ack land, or was the blasting secret of his guilt known to others ? He feared to speak, lest he should betray more thaj^ was known, and this kept him for a longer time silent. At last, without venturing to look up, he said " Mr. Ackland. with pain I have to own. CRIME DISCOVERED. 131 that, driven to the verge of bankruptcy, 1 forged your name. But, it is but justice to myself to affirm, that it was "with no intention of doing wrong to you or any one. It was a temporary expedient." " That may cost you the loss of liberty and a good name," said Mr. Ackland, with bitter emphasis. Riddell started to his feet. " Tell me, sir," he said, eagerly, his lips qui vering, and his whole face expressive of alarm, :< is your dreadful secret known to others ?" " It is known just this far," replied Mr. Ackland, speaking with forced calmness ; " a note drawn by somebody in your favor, and upon which you had forged my endorsement, came before the board to-day for discount. I betrayed the fact of your crime by the pain and surprise my face must have exhibited when I saw that my name had been forged. Acting upon this, the note was rejected by the board without a word of comment. Since I have been home, three of the directors have called, evidently in regard to the note. I would not see them. But it is clear they more than sus pect the truth. Franklin ! Is this the only instance in which you have thus stepped aside :" 12 132 .VAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. " I solemnly affirm that it is !" said the young man, unhesitatingly. 11 If so, Riddeir, exposure may be prevented But if not if there be more paper out upon which you have forged mine or any other name, your destruction is inevitable. Suspicion is excited, and the truth will come to light, and that speedily. You need look for no other result. And what then ? You cannot hope to escape shame, disgrace, and the just judg ment of the law." The knees of Riddell smote against each other ; yet he continued, most solemnly, to affirm that he was guilty only in the single in stance where discovery had been made. After a long conference as to what it would be best to do to allay suspicion, Riddell left his father-in-law, glad to get away, that he might think, undisturbed by his rebuking pre sence, and determine what course of action it was necessary to pursue. But the more he thought, the more imminent appeared the dan ger with which he was threatened. There were more than fifty bills out, upon any one of which he could be found guilty of forgery. On the very next day, ten thousand dollars had to be lifted, the failure to do which would inevitably lead to his exposure, and the only way he could CKfME DISCOVERED. 133 meet the payment was to forgo new paj er, the negotiation of which might be prevented by the whispered suspicions of the bank directors going like electricity through the business community. " I am in great peril," said the unhappy man, as he sat musing in his private counting room. " After having toiled so hard after having fought with so much bravery up to this position is all to be lost ' My wealth my good name ! All ! all !" A shudder went through him. Some one opened the door of the counting room at the moment. He turned and encountered the anx ious face of Partridge. " There is a strange rumor abroad, Riddell," said the intruder abruptly " no less than thai you have been making improper use of your father-in-law's name !" Riddell forced a smile, and replied with as much indifference as he could assume " Yes, I have heard of that. But, I guess it won't do much harm. Mr. Ackland forgot that he had endorsed a certain note for me, and when, two months afterwards, it was sent to his bank for discount by the party to which I had passed it, be exhibited some surprise, and the sharp old chnps who preside over the affairs of 134 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. the bank immediately supposed they had made a great discovery. He said nothing, and they said nothing ; but as soon as the board adjourned, two or three of them put their heads together and tried to make out a case. But, 1 imagine, they know the truth by this time." " But, it is said, a committee called at the house of Mr. Ackland to ask him the direct question whether he had or had not endorsed the note, and that he refused to see them/ al though they sent up their names." " Is it possible ! Preposterous ! Can any one believe this ? Why, Mr. Ackland saw them, and told them that the endorsement was genuine." " He did ?" " Certainly he did !" " It's bad business though, Riddell, to make the best of it. I am afraid it will materially hurt your credit." " I dp n't think so. People cannot be sim ple enough to believe so unlikely a story." " People are always more ready to believe harm than good of others. " " To some extent, I know they are. But the truth in this case is so apparent that no ono can help seeing it. It troubles me but little, J can assur* 1 you." CRIME D1SCOVERKL". 135 The face and tone of lliddell, hard as he strove to disguise his real feelings, gave the lie to his words, and Partridge, with no little con cern of mind, saw that it was so. He had called to see Riddell, under the faint hope that he could satisfy him that there was som^ mistake ; but he saw that all was, indeed, too true, and that the downfall of his associate was near at hand a downfall that must involve him to an almost ruinous extent, and disclose transactions that would, in all probability, bring down upon his head the bitter execrations of an injured community. He left the store of Riddell in no pleasant state of mind ; but with the paralyzing fear settling about his heart that there was no way of escape from the storm, which he saw sweeping up the horizon with dark and threat ening aspect. Alone again, Riddell once more sank into a deep and gloomy reverie. " If a suspicion of the truth is thus flying from lip to lip," he at length murmured, half aloud, arousing himself, and actually wringing his hands as he spoke, " all hope is lost. There b too much of this paper out. Before to-mor row noon, a dozen notes will be brought to Mr. Ackland and others, to know if the endorse ments upon them be genuine; and before to- 12* 136 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. morrow night, I shall be under arrest, and most likely in prison." Once more the victim of an inordinate love of gain shuddered, and to the very centre of his being. " Before to-morrow night ?" he resumed, after a pause. " It may be before to-night ! Even now, some minion of the law may be in search of me!" And he started up quickly, with a look of fear upon his countenance. Opening his desk, he transferred to his pocket-book several pack ages of bank bills, and then hastily left the store. CHAPTER XIII. CONSEQUENCES. RIDDELL did not come home to dinner, a thing of rare occurrence, and his wife awaited the re turn of evening with feelings of anxiety which she could not shake off. A sense of coming evil oppressed her. A shadow was upon her heart, and a weight upon her bosom. When any one rang the street door bell, her puke CONSEQUENCES. 137 would throb quickly, and she would wait and listen with an anxiety for which she could not account. At length the dusky twilight came, adding fear to anxiety. She stood at the window of her splendid home, looking eagerly for the form, and listening for the step of her husband. But hundreds went by, yet he appeared not. As darkness took the place of twilight, and the troubled wife yet remained watching at the window, every throb of her laboring heart was, to her own ears, distinctly audible. A man at last paused, looked up at the win dow where she stood, and then entered the marble portico that adorned the entrance of the dwelling. It was not her husband. The bell was rung, a servant went to the door, and then the man descended slowly, looked up again at the house, and passed on. There was something in the appearance of this individual that Mrs. Riddell did not like. Why, was not even inquired. He passed from sight and from thought, but he had left an impression of con cern on her feelings. Scarcely five minutes elapsed before she saw him again on the oppo site side of the street, walking slowly along, and distinct to her eyes in the bright rays of a gas lamp Ho was looking over at the house, 138 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. and after passing a little beyond it, paused, turned, and walked slowly back to a point as far beyond on the other side, and then return ed, still looking over as if watching for some one. And then backwards and forwards he continued to walk, until Mrs. Riddell became so excited with a vague fear of something, she knew not what, that she was unable to stand, and sank almost fainting upon a couch near the window. An hour longer, and still the husband was away ; and still the strange man walked slowly to and fro, evidently awaiting his arrival, for he had asked whether he were at home By this time the anxiety of Mrs. Riddell had become so intense, that she sent the waiter to ask her father if he would not come around immediately. Such a summons Mr. Ackland was not slow to obey, though he did it with a trembling heart. He had not seen his son-in- law since the painful interview held with him on that day, and, in fact, had not been out of his house since his return from the meeting of the Board of Directors, at which he had made the dreadful discovery of Riddell's guilt. He was not, therefore, apprised of the fact that a dozen startling rumors were afloat, alleging a most extensive system of forgeries CONSEQUENCES. 139 On arriving at the- house of his daughter, and while he yet stood within the portico wait- ing to be admitted, a man came quickly across the street, and, ascending the steps, said, with a decided tone and manner " Mr. Riddell, I believe, Sir." '' You happen to be in error," was replied. " My name is not Riddell." The man looked at him doubtingly, for a moment or two, and then turned away as the servant opened the door. Mrs. Riddell met her father in the hall with an anxious face. " Do you know where Franklin is ? " she asked. " Is he not home yet ?" inquired Mr. Ack- land, as they retired into one of the drawing- rooms. " No ; he has not been home since morn- ing." " Indeed !" The way in which that single word was spoken, expressed more of surprise and anxiety than Mr. Ackland meant to betray. " Have you seen him ?" asked Blanche in a choking voice. " I saw him about twelve o'clock to-day Not since. Urgent business must keep him away. Yon know he has a great deal on his hands." 140 MAKING HA1TE TO BE RICH. " Oh, yes ! Far far too much. He thinks of nothing but business through the day, and, to judge of the many words that fall from his lips in sleep, dreams of nothing else through the night. But business has never kept him away for so long a time before." Mr. Ackland did not like the appearance of the man he had encountered as he came in. There was something about him that made him think of kw, courts, and prisons something that awoke in his mind the fear of more immi nent danger than he had supposed hung over their heads. But what he felt he had to conceal. " Mr. Riddell will certainly be home soon," he said, because he had to say something. " Business, of course, detains him. Hark ! Some one is ringing now." In a little while the door was opened they listened breathlessly. " Is Mr. Ackland here ?" The father of Blanche, on hearing his OWE name mentioned, stepped from the drawing room into the hall. " Mr. Ackland ! Good evening. Can we have a word or two with you ?" said one of two men, both of whom he knew very well ; but did not know how deeply they were involved with his son-in-law. CONSEQUENCES. 141 Mr. Ackland stepped out into the portico, And the servant left the door. "Have you seen Mr. Riddell to-day?" one of the men asked. " I saw him this morning," replied Mr Ackland. " He is not at home now, I presume?" " No. He has not come in yet." " We called at your house and learned that you were here, and took the liberty of coming around. You are, of course, aware that there are rumors afloat, touching Mr. Riddell, of a very serious character." "I have heard nothing," replied Mr. Ack land, a sudden tremor passing over his whole body. " Nothing ! Why it is in every mouth. You meet it at every turn." " I have not been out until now, since morn ing. But tell me, for heaven's sake, gentlemen, to what you allude ! What is involved in these rumors?" " Extensive forgeries. Not only upon you, but upon many others.'' Mr. Ackland leaned against a marble pillar to support himself. u It is also said, that he was seen leaving the city by the afternoon train of cars." 142 MAKING HASTE TO BE KICK " Whose name has he used besides mir.e ?" asked Mr. Ackland, in a low, mournful voice. " The name of Barker & Co.; Martin & Jones ; Amos Avermore ; and others that I do not recollect," replied one of the men. " May there not be some mistake ?" asked Mr. Ackland. " No. We have seen the parties named, and all state that paper has been brought to them during this day to know if the endorsements thereon were genuine ; and that they had pro nounced them forgeries." A deep groan escaped the lips of the unhappy man, upon whoso ears this dreadful intelligence smote. " Gentlemen," he at length said, speaking with all the calmness he could assume, " if this be all tme, for what purpose have you called upon me ?*' " Simply in the hope that you could give us some testimony to put in the other scale. Have you any ?" " I have none," was the sadly spoken answer. The men bowed and retired. " Oh, father !" ejaculated Mrs. Riddell, falling into the arms of Mr. Ackland, as he came back into the hall. She had followed him from the drawing room, and standing near THE FINAL CATASTROPHE. 143 the door, heard the blasting accusation brought against her husband. " It is all false ! Speak, father ! It, is all false !" The mute lips of Mr. Ackland quivered they would not, they could not give the lie to what was in his mind nor utter a word of con firmation. But his silence was conclusive to the mind of Blanche. A faint cry of anguish, a deep shudder, a low choking sob, and the stricken wife lay in the arms of her father pale, cold, and insensible. CHAPTER XIV. THE FINAL CATASTROPHE. PARTRIDGE and two others sat in earnest con ference early on the morning following. A newspaper was in the hand of the former, and ho had just read the following paragraph : " PAINFUL RUMOR. Commercial and money circles were rife yesterday with rumo s !' ex tensive forgeries committed by an individual who has stood high in the confidence of the coinLuinity. We iiave been at some pains to 13 144 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. got at the facts of the case ; but statements are yet too vague to warrant our giving anything specific. It is said, however, that the guilty person is deeply concerned with one or two money institutions, and that some startling dis closures may be expected. Attempts w.ere made, during the afternoon and evening, to arrest the individual charged with this high crime, but he could not be found. He has, probably, left the city. But he will hardly escape." "Ruin! inevitable ruin tons all!" he ex claimed, striking his fist with great violence upon a table near which he sat. " The cursed villain ! Wasn't he making money fast enough, that he must commit a crime in order to swell his gains. Madness !" Bitter were the imprecations that fell from the lips of his companions ; and they raged, impotently, for a time, like wild beasts sud denly caged. " All is lost !" resumed Partridge, as he hurriedly paced the floor. " It will be impos sible for us, now, to keep the bank afloat. His connexion with it cannot fail to be known, and the public will crush it at a word. Then tot ters and falls the ' Mutual Savings' Fund,' and the * Union Insurance Company,' over whelming us in ruin, and bringing upon our THE FINAL CATASTROPHE 1 lO heads the execrations, perhaps the vengeance of a wronged community." " Shall we let all go without a struggle ?" asked one of the men. " All struggles must be vain, and weaken our power of eniurance in the final catastro phe," replied Partridge. " As for me, I find myself on Riddell's paper for fifty thousand dollars, and I suppose you are both more or less involved with him in the same way. Last night I ascertained that the ' Union' has nearly a hun dred thousand dollars of paper discounted for him ; and from carefully going over all of it, I have a very strong suspicion that at least one- half is forged. A heavy amount of post notes loaned on this immense sum have been dis counted in the ' Mutual Savings' Fund,' which is already so hard pressed that it can with diffi culty keep afloat. A breath of alarm will bring a run by depositors and holders of the issue payable at her counter, and stop her wheels in a day. Gentlemen ! it is useless for us to shut our eyes to the truth. We have ridden these three concerns so hard, that they have not enough strength left to carry us in safety beyond the present danger. But for Riddell's mad conduct, all would have gone on well. We could have foreseen an approaching 146 MAKING HASTE T BE RICH. storm, and bidden ourselves. But now the tempos! is over our heads, and there is no shel ter under which we can withdraw and await until it has spent its fury." Already had Partridge hitteriy cursed his own folly in tempting his associate to commit the very crime that was about proving the ruin of all. It is a question whether he has ever forgotten the " Autobiography of John Ketch," Fauntleroy's forgeries, or Doctor Dodd's un happy fate. He has had cause, as well as his victim, to remember them, for the pit he digged for another he fell into himself. All further struggles, as Partridge said, were "useless. By a kind of instincMhe connexion of Riddell with the "Eagleton Bank," " Mutual Savings' Fund," and " Union Insurance Com pany," was known in the community. On the day after he fled in alarm a fact, doubtless in ferred by the reader the notes of the bank were refused by the brokers, and at once be came uncurrent. Holders of those payable at the counter of the " Mutual Savings' Fund," crowded in with them for redemption. By ex traordinary efforts, the officers of the " Savings' Fund" sustained the run during the day, Knd closed its doors never again to re-open them. On .the day following, the " Union Insurance THE FINAL CATASTROPHE. 14? Company" suspended payment on its post notes, Bnd time enough thereafter to hear from Eagle- ton, only elapsed, before intelligence came that the bank had stopped. As usual on such occasions, advertisements were inserted in the papers, warning the holders of notes not to sacrifice them, as each of the three concerns had ample resources for the pay ment of everything due. But these did not prevent Eagleton Bank Stock from going down to its old rate of five or six dollars a share, nor enable those who wished to sell the bills to get over twenty cents on the dollar for them, at which rate they were bought up for those who owed the bank. In the midst of the excitement attendant on these events, Riddell was brought back to the city, and committed for trial. He had reached New Orleans, and was about embarking for Havana, when arrested. So incensed were the people against him, that it was deemed best by his friends to let him remain in prison for a time, to insure immunity from personal vio lence. The truth in regard to the Eagleton Bank soon became fully apparent, and the connexion of those who had engaged in the traud upon the public, understood in the community. Part- 13* MS MAKING HAS1E TO BE RICH. tridge was debtor to the institution to an amount reaching nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and Riddell nearly as much more, the security for which was an hypothecation of their own stock in the Bank, and also of stock in the " Union nsurance Company," besides fancy stocks bought at a mere song, and hypothecated at their par value. As for the " Mutual Savings' Fund," there was nothing in the shape of actual property to show. Plenty of " Union Insur ance Company's" post notes, were on hand, and notes of Partridge, Riddell, and others, who had stopped payment on the failure of the "Bank," "Fund," and " Company." De positors lost everything, and many a poor man and friendless widow saw hundreds of dollars, that were deemed as safe as if they had possessed the amount in gold, melt from before their eyes, like frost work in the morning sun. It would add nothing to the force of the les son this simple narrative in which not a few will recognise more of fact iuan fancy is in tended to impress upon the mind, were touch ing instances of distress, occasioned by the high-handed villany detailed, to be presented to the reader. Enough of these occurred to sicken the heart, and wring from hundreds deep THE FINAL CATASTROPHE. 143 curses upon the authors of the wrong they had sustained. lu the midst of the earnest struggles n ad by Partridge to disentangle himself from the meshes ia which he was involved, and save something handsome from the ruins, even though his good name were lost, he was arrest ed on a charge of swindling, and held to bail for trial. This broke him down ; for it made the prosecution of what he was doing the very means of convicting him. All, therefore, was lost to him, for to save himself from the dan ger of conviction on the charge brought, he gave up everything for the benefit of creditors, and thus escaped the legal punishment of his nefarious deeds. When he left the court-house , at the close of a long trial, he left it poor and friendless. None pitied him ; none took him by the hand. Even his old and more fortunate associates turned their backs. Broken in spirits, despised and in poverty, he was left to eat, alone, the bitter fruits of repentance ; though, we fear, it was not unto life ; for such men rarely repent of their evil deeds, but only of the errors by which ruin was dragged down upon their beads. 150 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH CHAPTER XV. SADDER EVENTS. IF men were alcne doomed to bear the uonse* quences of their actions, we could see those consequences visited upon them without the acute pain we now too frequently feel. But, alas ! it almost always happens, that the inno cent suffer far more deeply than the guilty. It was so in the case of Franklin Riddell. From the moment the terrible accusations brought against her husband, reached the ears of his wife, she felt as if a hand had grasped her heart, and tightened upon it every hour with a crushing force. She did not refuse to be com forted, for none sought to mock her with vain words. The truth was too dreadful to admit of disguise or palliation. Misfortune she could have borne, no matter how severe, and shrunk closer and more lovingly to her husband's side. Affliction could not have crushed her heart, even though they had left it widowed ; for fehe would have looked up to heaven and said, " It is the Lord, let him do what scemeth Him good." But crime ! crime committed by one whose name she bore whose honor was dearer 8ADDEK EVENIb. 151 than life this was too much ! This was more than she had received strength to endure, and she never lifted her bowed head again. On the day her husband was brought oack to the city to answer to the law for his evil deeds, she lay with white flowers upon her motionless breast and it was better for her that she did. After the death of his daughter, Mr. Ackland permitted himself to feel no more interest in one who had proved himself unworthy of all honest men's regard. When the popular ex citement had so far died away, that it was pre sumed that Riddell could appear without dan ger of personal violence, Mr. Ackland was ap plied to to enter into recognizance in the sum of ten thousand dollars for his appearance to answer the charge against him, but he de clined, and the consequence was, that Riddell remained in prison until the day of his trial. There were those who blamed Mr. Ackland, and spoke of him as governed by a spirit of vin- dictiveness towards Ids unfortunate son-in-law. There might have been something of this in it, or there might not. A month after the mother died, her babo sighed out its feeble breath, and was laid in its little coffin beside the mouldering remains of her who had given it life ; and before the 152 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. wretched father was arraigned to answer far his crime, his boy was taken from the earth. Blanche, the eldest child, only remained, and she was yet too young to understand how much she had lost, or to be aware of the foul dis grace that her father had brought upon his name. Immediately after Riddell left the city, on becoming aware that a discovery of his mis deeds was inevitable, measures were taken by his principal credftors that gave them posses sion of his property, to be held for the benefit of all who had claims against him. This placed every thing beyond his control, so that after his arrest, be could command, by means of his representative, but little, if any money. When his trial finally came on, he had no pow erful individual or money interest to sustain him. He could not say to his lawyers, " Here are ten, twenty, or thirty thousand dollars, it is yours if I am cleared," and no onp cared enough for him to say it in his stead. When Mr. Ackland was urged to come forward and try to serve him, his reply was " No. He has violated the law. Let the law vindicate itself, and if he were my own son, I would not turn a finger to save him from con sequences so richly merited." THE PRISONER FREE. 153 The trial commenc3d and soon terminated. All the evidence was conclusive, as to the mat ter of forgery ; and other frauds were distinctly proved. The Judge, at the close of the pro ceedings, charged the jury that every point in the indictment had been clearly affirmed, and that a verdict to that effect must necessarily be found ; and the jury, without retiring, so de clared a verdict. Two days afterwards, Riddell was brought be fore the Court and sentenced to ten years' im prisonment, five in solitary confinement and five at hard labor. CHAPTER XVI THE PRISONER FREE. TEN years how long a period to some; how brief to others ten years at last rolled round, and the imprisoned one was set free. He had paid, even to the last farthing, the penalty laid upon him by the violated law of his coun try. For five long, long, weary years, he had not seen the face of a living soul but that of his keeper ; and for five more years he toiled 154 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. men of crime, like himself, some with deeper stains upou them, and some more innocent. In all that time he had heard nothing of what was going on in the busy world without. No word had come to him from friend or foe. He was as a dead man to those who had known him, and they left him in his tomb unvisited. The death of his -wife, and subsequently of two of his children, he knew. Intelligence of these sad events reached him immediately on their occurrence, and deep was the grief and bitter the feelings of remorse they awakened. But they were buried, and he saw them not. Of the other child of Blanche, who had her mother's gentle face and loving heart he had not heard since the prison gates shut themselves between him and the outer world. She might be living or she might be dead he knew not. But these prison gates were at last opened, and the humbled man went forth, but with no feeling of exultation on regaining his liberty. There were no friends to receive him who would pity or forgive the past. No home to which he could go and hide himself for a time. No fortune, although he had spent years of inces sant toil and anxious care in striving for gain, awaited him. All all he had struggled for was lost. THE PRISONER FREE. 155 Riddell went forth and breathed again the free air; but his breast was no lighter. He walked the street among freemen, but no hap pier than when he was a prisoner. Only a day before, his heart bounded at the thought of liberty now it lay like a heavy weight in his bosom. . He thought of his child. Was she living ? and should he go to her, and smite her innocent young heart with his presence ? He felt au intense yearning to see her ; but something whispered to him that he ought not to search her out. If she still lived, she had doubtless been taught to think of him as dead, and the truth might kill her, as it had killed her mo ther. Slowly he walked the streets of his native city ; but how busy had been the hand of change. He saw but few countenances that he remembered ; none knew him. Urged by a feeling that he could not repress, he at last took his way to the part of the town where he had erected his elegant mansion. A stranger's name was on the door where his had once been. He moved on with a deep sigh. Not far from this stood a large and beauti ful dwelling ; as he passed by, he read the name of MORRIS JORDAN. Tbo steps of the unhappy 14 156 MAKI1W HASTE TO BE BICH. man were quickened ; his teeth were firmly set and his hand clenched. " Fool ! fool !" he muttered, as he want hurriedly along. " I was a madman !" he add ed in a little while, sadly, and again his steps lingered. Suddenly his eyes rested upon a young and beautiful face at a window He paused but for an instant, and then almost sprang away Was it the face of her who had lain in his bosom ? Was it a vision ? No. It was the face .of his child ! of Blanche, just in the bloom and beauty of life's early spring time. Sixteen summers had smiled, and six teen winters blown upon her young cheeks, and both had brightened them Riddell's heart beat wildly, and his brain was, for a time, all in confusion. Yes, it was bis child. His eyes had seen her. She was yet alive, and happy. Oh ! with what intense- ness did he long to take her to his bosom ; but, he felt that she was too pure to be touched by him that he had no right to step forth and curse her with his presence. His was a wild, wild struggle. But he conquered. Yet, daj after day, and night after night, for more than a week, would he go by her home, now and then getting a sight of her face, and sometimes hearing her sweet voice he knew it was hei THE PRISONER FREE. 157 voice, it was so like one that had been hushed for years warbling like the voice of a happy bird. At last he resolved to tear himself away ; for he felt, that if he staid much longer, he would not have power to go. Far off, in some west ern city, it was his purpose to seek, under an assumed name, an honest livelihood. On the day previous to the one fixed upon for his de parture, he passed the house of his child more than twenty times, with the hope of seeing her face once more, perhaps for the last time. But the shutters were closed, and so remained. " I must look upon her again," he murmur ed, as he went by the dwelling of Mr. Ackland, and still found the windows shut. " I cannot go until I have seen that face once more." The unhappy man had scarcely uttered these words, when his eyes rested, a short distance in advance, upon Mr. Ackland, who looked twenty years older than when he last saw him ; and upon his arm leaned a sylph-like form. It was Blanche, looking fairer, and purer, and happier, than she had yet appeared in his eyes. His knees tottered his heart grew still his feet refused to obey the impulse of his mind- - and ha stood with his eyes riveted upon the face of one he yearned with an intense desire 158 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. to clasp to his bosom, but dared not. She did not notice him, but passed on. He turned and followed her with his eyes, until she was hid den from view by the crowd ; and then, groan ing in the anguish of his spirit, moved slowly on. He had not gone far, however, when a hand was laid upon his shoulder. Turning quickly, he stood face to face with Mr. Ack- land, who had recognised him as they passed. For some moments the two men looked intently at each other, both trembling violently. " Come," said Mr. Ackland at length, lay ing his hand upon the arm of Riddell ; and they walked silently, side by side, for the dis tance of three or four blocks, and then entered a hotel. Mr. Ackland called for a room, and in a brief space they were alone. By this time Riddell had regained his self-possession. " I am, doubtless, the last man you expected or wished to meet," he said, with some firm ness, breaking the silence that had been main tained on both sides, up to this point, while he looked full and steadily in the face of Mr. Ack land. " I was not aware that your term had ex pired," was answered. u I have looked for ward to the time as anxiously, perhaps, as your self For what reason, I need not say. I did THK PRISONER FREE 159 hope, that when again free, you would at once leave this city. But it seems I have erred. A week at least has elapsed, and you are still here " " Do you blame me for lingering ?" asked Riddell in a voice that trembled. " Do you wonder that I found it almost impossible to tear myself away ?" " Perhaps I should not," said Mr. Ackland, touched by the tone and manner of Riddell. " Tell me one thing," said the latter, after a pause, speaking earnestly. " Does Blanche know anything of my unhappy history ? Doea she know that I am alive ?" " She does not. She was but a child when those terrible events happened." " Crime, then, is not associated in her mind with the name of her father ?" No " May the blessing of heaven rest upon you !" ejaculated Riddell, catching hold of Mr. Ackland's hand, and pressing it warmly. The old man \flas visibly moved. " Daily, for a week," resumed Riddell, " have I passed your house many times, to get a look at the face of my child, and night aftei night have I stood beneath your windows, that I might hear the sound of her voice, sad as the 14* 160 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. tones made me feel ; all th$ while struggling tc tear myself away, without the power to do so. Oh, sir, if you knew how I long to take iny child in my arms, you would pity me ; for I cannot do so without making dark the light in her happy eyes, and that I will not do. Ten years, sir, is a long time for a man to suffer and repent ; and it is hard, after all is over, to go forth again into the world, and not find one who will forgive all, and love through all. My child would forgive all, even if she knew all, and love me still ; but selfish as I am, I will not ask that of her, for she cannot forgive me and love me without knowing all and that know ledge would be gained at too dear a cost, Mr. Ackland ! I know that you, as well as hun - dreds, have execrated my name ; and yet I aever intended to wrong any one, when, under strong temptation, I resorted to the mode of raising money that proved my ruin. I believed that, by this means I would be able to carry through my scheme of money-making, and se cure the great fortune I was so eager to gain ; and, through all, lift myself the paper I creat ed. But the unfortunate discovery you made, and the involuntary betrayal thereof, destroyed everything. And have I not suffered for my folly ' a.ye, have I not suffered enough ? Even THE PRISONER FREE. 161 you would think so even you would pity me if you could know all I have endured since last you saw me." And Mr. Ackland did, from his heart, pity the unhappy man, much as h e had suffered from his folly and crime. 1'hat he had not come forth from prison cold and hardened, was a re lief to him. " I know you love Blanche as if she were your own child," said Riddell, after a brief silence. " How can you help loving her. And yet you have others to love. She is my child, and all that is left to me in the world " A choking sob interrupted his utterance, bul he struggled with himself and regained his o jmposure. " If she were with me if I could come to her as from a far country nay, even if my appearing were with a confession of former wrong doings, long and bitterly repented I know sha would love me, and that love would be to me like a gushing spring to the traveller iust perishing with thirst. Do you think this might be done ? Pity me, and have regard foi me." Mr. Ackland was deejn y n vcd. " 1 am not all evil, sir," resumed Riddell " Widely as I strayed, ur.der strong tempta- 162 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH turns selfish and disgraceful of the good of others as I proved myself to be when filled with the lust of gain long-suffering has brought re pentance ; and now, in thinking of my child, the good resolutions that have been forming in my mind gain strength. Oh ! if we could be restored to each other, without wrong to her." " That could hardly be ; and yet I will think," replied Mr. Ackland, in a softened tone. " You are without money, of course," he said, after a few moments. " Except a small sum which I kept through my long confinement. But tell me what was the result in the settlement of my affairs by those wao took charge of them ?" " A large dividend was paid." " It is well. There was enough, and more than enough to pay all that I owed, if I could have settled it myself." " You need some help now," said Mr. Ack land. " Your dress must be improved. Here we a hundred dollars. Get suitable clothing immediately. To-morrow I will see you again. By that time I will be able to think to better purpose than I can now." Riddell seized the hand of Mr. Ackland, and said, with deep emotion THE PR160NER FREE. 163 " Oh, sir ! can you forgive me for all the Buffering my folly has occasioned you ?" " The past is past," replied Mr. Ackland, trying to speak with composure ; u I trust that what I have suffered has not steeled my heart. If there be forgiveness in God, man ought not to harden himself against his fellow man who repents." Riddell bowed his head and wept like a chUd. " To-morrow, at this time, and in this place, 1 will meet you again," said Mr. Ackland, rising. " No, not here," returned Riddell, naming another place ; and the two men parted, with far different feelings than when they met. At the next interview, it was arranged that Riddell should leave the city without seeing his daughter, and go to a certain small town in the West, and there commence business for himself on a small capital advanced by Mr. Ackland, and leave with him the task of breaking to Blanche, at a proper time, the fact that her father was living. This design was at once carried out, and Riddell departed from hia native city, to seek a home far off and among strangers. 164 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH CHAPTER XVII. CONCLUSION. ONE evening, about a year after Riddell's re lease from imprisonment, Mr. Ackland sat alone with Blanche, in earnest conversation. The time had come for him to tell her the truth about her father. After directing her atten tion to the period of her earliest recollection, he said " Do you remember anything about your father, Blanche ?" A flush passed quickly over the beautiful face of the young girl. Heretofore, every allusion to her father, which she had ventured to make, had been met by reserve ; and every question relating to him evaded. " Not much," she replied. " I was young when he went away. Is he living, or is he dead, grandpa ? Oh ! you do not know how mu^h I have thought of him lately." " He is living, my child. For a year past I have corresponded with him frequently." " And did not tell me !" " No, Blanche, for it was his wish that 1 should not do so." " His wish ! Does he not care for me?" CONCLUSION. 165 Tears were visible beneath the half shut eye- lido of the nmiden. ' He loves you tenderly, my child, and most ardeiitly desires to see you." " Then why does he stay away ? Why has he been to ine like one that is dead for so many years ?" " You have asked a quetion that must bo answered .before you can meet. Your father, Blanche, has been a sufferer for many long years and amid all, there has been none to speak to,him a word of comfort or hope. All turned from him." The face of Blanche became very pale, and the tears .stole out and fell in large drops over her face. She tried to speak, but her lips moved inarticulately. " But, my child," resumed Mr. Ackland, " there was a cause why his best friends thus turned from him and left him to suffer alone. Your father, in the eager pursuit of wealth, was sorely tempted to do wrong, and fell in tha temptation." The whole frame of the maiden shook. Mr Ackland, when he remembered the death of her mother, felt alarmed for Blanche. But there was no holding back now. The truth, softened as much as he dared soften it, must be told 166 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. " It is the wish of your father," he continued, ' that you should know all." " Then speak, grandpa ! Do not keep me any longer in this dreadful suspense," said Blanche, her bosom panting, and her voice almost inaudible. " Your father, some ten or twelve years ago, was one of our most active merchants. He had made money fast, but not fast enough to meet his wishes ; and he, therefore, entered upon new and vast schemes of profit that could not be sustained by the capital upon which his business rested. At a certain point in his af fairs, he had need of more money than it was possible to raise by any of the ordinary means that were open to him. Unless this money were obtained, ruin, inevitable, would follow. In this crisis of his affairs, when he was almost paralized with alarm, but one mode of extrica tion presented itself, and, with great reluctance, he adopted that mode ; he had no intention of doing wrong to any. The expedient was re sorted to as a temporary one ; but necessity compelled him to continue it. From a single instance of departure from a right path, he was forced, by the power of accumulating circum stances, far away into error, and, at last, an accident exposed all From a high and honor CONCLUSION. 167 able position in the community, he fell sud denly overwhelmed with disgrace. Nor was this all. What he had done, though done, as he solemnly avers, with no intention of wrong to others, but with the hope of carrying him safely through his difficulties, was a violation of the law, and justice sought its own vindica tion For ten years, Blanche, was your un happy father deprived of liberty." At this announcement the daughter's feel ings gave way, and for many minutes she wept and sobbed passionately. Mr. Ackland did not attempt to check the wild burst of grief, for he deemed it better that it should expend itself. " Where is my father now?" at length asked the young girl, firmly, lifting her head and showing a face on which the tears no longer re mained. " It is just a year," said Mr. Ackland, " since he breathed the free air. A lonely, heart-stricken man, he wandered the streets of his native city a stranger to all. And he often passed here, and paused a moment to look at your face ; and lingered under our win dows at night, to listen to your voice." "Grandpa!" exclaimed Blanche, her face and bo ly instantly convulsed. But a gush of 15 16S MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. tears came to her relief; and long and passion ately did she weep again. " He could not think of smiting your inno cent, happy heart," continued Mr. Ackland, after Blanche had grown calm, " by his pre sence. Hard as it was for him to do so, he had resolved to go far off, and bear alone the burden his own act had laid upon his shoulders, and he had fixed the time of his departure. But he could not tear himself away without once more looking upon your face. Twenty times, in half that number of hours, did he pass your home ; but saw you not. Again at twilight he went by, and still the closed shut ters mocked his eager eyes. But, a few steps beyond, and he met you, and looked fondly upon your face, as he believed, for the last time. When we reached our own door, I left you and went back. He had reason to believe that I had not forgiven him ; and I must own, that I found it hard to do so, for his act cost me greater pain than I had ever before en dured. But the hour I spent with him that evening removed the bitterness from my heart, and pity took the place of anger. I supplied him with money and he went far off to the West, and there, under an assumed name, CONCLUSION. 169 commenced business. And now, he waits to take you to his lonely heart, if you will go." " Go ! grandpa," said the agitated, weeping giri " Let me go this hour !" "But you will go among strangers." " My father will be there." " You will have to take another name." " If my father bears it, that is enough. Oh, let me go to him." And the eager girl stood trembling before the old man, who had loved her so long, and with a tenderer love than he had ever borne for one of his own children. At this instant, the door of the room opened quickly. Blanche turned. One glance suf ficed. Her heart was not deceived. " My father !'' And she fell forward into the arms of the stranger who entered. Far away in the West lives a man, whose aspect ranks him as prematurely old. He is sober and thoughtful. None seo him smile. He. lives alone with his daughter, a beautiful young creature, beloved and admired by all who are so favored as to win he*r friendship People wonder who they are ; but can learn 170 MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH. little about them. All questions touching their previous history are met with silence, or evad ed ; and those who evince a prurient curiosity, are treated with a coldness that soon makes them strangers. But, by all, is seen the de voted love of the daughter for her parent, and it is plain that she is as tenderly loved by him. The man is remarkable for upright dealing ; and is, for this cause, as well as from his ami able deportment, respected by every one. The daughter is highly accomplished, and her tem per so sweet, that all feel glad when they can win her from the seclusion of her home to grace their social circles. Twice a year she goes on to the East to spend a month with some relatives. As yet, the names of these rela fives are not known, though some more curious than the rest, have discovered the city where they live. Doubtless, the same curious ones will not rest until the truth is fully known, and the whisper gets wind that the real name of the lovely Blanche is Riddell and not Hart- man. But she will never know that the sad secret of her father's 'life is known among the people with whom she dwells. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. L 7 1< 95 5(jt 2 WS fi IUN ocfi7'i994 ^* I I tfe 1994 ~H' r si U| UL iiliiii A 001372730 o JO