CHAPTER XXI.

DAY-DREAMS.

A GREAT change came over the appearance of my office. From a quiet, retired room, with few visitors, it was transferred into a bustling, active place, filled with people from morning till night, very agreeable people too. They were generally the parties originally interested in the schemes which Harley had undertaken. For, since the Alworthy failure, my friend had thought best to remove his office from Pollock's, especially as he had concluded not to engage with that firm, as he at first intended, in shipping pure spirits to Bordeaux and have it returned a first-rate article of French brandy, to be sold in bond. The consequence was, since Harley expected to leave in a few weeks for Europe, and I was to be so closely interested with him, we thought it best he should remove to my office, which, by the ready adapta tion of a large screen, we easily converted into two rooms.

I now became fully acquainted with the class ycleped "non-industrial" by severe and rigid people. I recollect being most interested in a gentleman who wished to call attention to the harbor of Brunswick in Georgia, a neglected position, and claimed to be one of the best havens on the whole line of coast. It was proposed to erect a city there in place of the few scattering houses, and make it the entrepôt for Georgia pine betwixt the interior and England.

This man was very sanguine of becoming a millionaire and of making Harley a millionaire also. He was a liberal, whole-souled fellow, who was possessed of a large landed property in Georgia, and was desirous to avail himself of Harley's genius to make it available. He lived well: ate good dinners, drank good wines, and waited with patient good-nature for the auspicious day when English capital should cross the water, guided by the extraordinary talent of his friend (to whom he had given a written contract to share equally), and proceed to develop the resources of his native state in a manner serviceable to all parties.

It is quite unnecessary to make mention of the many schemes presented to Harley, which were at once rejected as altogether too visionary or impracticable. One, however, I will allude to, and hope an old acquaintance will pardon me for recalling an instance when his usual good sense and shrewdness so far forsook him that he actually lent a serious ear and a good deal of money toward the construction of a flying-machine. This was first offered to Harley, who rejected it on the spot, but as it promised so much-the ocean could be traversed in a few hours with ease and without danger-it so far found favor in Wall-street as to induce the gentleman just mentioned to put in sufficient money to build one. Delicacy forbids my going into particulars, and telling what became of the machine.

I repeat, my office was now filled with individuals who were about to realize fortunes. The tone of conversation was always cheerful and encouraging; in fact, we had it all our own way. But unfortunately, reader, the more my office became frequented by these sanguine gentlemen of

the future, the greater was my distaste for my daily occupation. Listening continually to remarks where no sums under tens of thousands were spoken of, and from these numerals as a minimum up to fabulous amounts, it is not to be wondered at that I became disgusted with the petty labors of a note-broker, wherein my first ambition had been to make five dollars a day. To run about all the morning without success, or if successful, to secure but three or four dollars as the fruit of my industry, became very irksome in view of the large sums I was certain of realizing in the course of a few months. Harley thought it very ridiculous of me to be still digging away at what he called my breakback work.

Without exactly withdrawing from it, I found myself taking less and less interest in what I had to do. This was soon perceived by my constituents, and the result can be readily divined. By degrees my business fell off. I was too much occupied to think about it. Indeed, it was not long before I was engrossed heart and soul in the various schemes which Harley had under preparation. Possibly the reader will wonder at this avowal. I wonder when I now look back on what I was doing. I had experience. I was fully enlightened on the subject. I may say I knew just what I was about. But for all that, a certain hallucination had possession of me. I can compare its effects only to what is produced by the extraordinary stimulus of wine or tobacco. conversation of men about every-day affairs became insipid. I lived in a world shared only by my companions in exaltation, and if occasionally I permitted any foreboding of the issue, or any distrust of the results to cross my mind, I had

The

only to cheer myself by conversing with some of my friends, who were fully competent to reassure me. Harley had not yet called on me for the seven hundred and odd dollars which he had desired me to retain. He finally said he should not require it till he left for Europe. I was exceedingly prudent, taking care to invest on "call," on perfect security. But the control of the money made me feel richer than I really was, and helped to heighten the day-dream which entranced me.

One thing proved a source of constant embarrassment. I have observed that I was in the habit of informing my daughter of my daily plans and various business details, interesting to her in consequence of her intense sympathy with every thing which concerned me. Now, I could not explain to her just what I was doing, and hoped to achieve. Why couldn't I? That was the question. Did I not fear that to her clear and unsophisticated sense, child as she was, my hopes and expectations would seem visionary and delusive, especially as I was losing the substance-a sure support from day to day-while I grasped at what might turn out but shadow? That was it. And while in a general way I gave Alice to understand that I had undertaken several business matters which promised largely, I no longer talked over affairs with her as heretofore. I grew silent and distrait. I spent less time at the house with the children, and even when at home, began to feel a nervous restlessness to get back to the scene of so much promise, where I could talk over our plans with Harley, and find in his ever-cheerful companionship a solace against any fear or foreboding.

I said my business diminished. It is remarkable how

soon the world discovers when a man is not in earnest in what he is about, and deals with him accordingly. Of all occupations, the one I had selected required perhaps the most assiduous attention. The reader will not be surprised to learn that before Harley got ready to sail for Liverpool I had quite abandoned the occupation of note-broker, or rather, it had abandoned me. And why? I have already explained. Not that my time was really entirely taken up in the new schemes, but because attention to them absolutely unfitted me for any steady occupation, so that I could not endure the tranquil uniformity of ordinary life. But how was I to live, meantime? Even so serious a question did not embarrass me, did not present itself in force or seriously. Oh! in all these various projects, a few thousands must come under any circumstances. I have already five hundred dollars ahead, besides the five hundred dollars of Alice's. I can at any time draw for what is necessary on Harley, so he says; and we shall yet have between two and three thousand dollars out of the proceeds of the sale of the old house.

At the same time, I insensibly adopted a more generous style of living, so that I was soon spending at the rate of two thousand dollars a year instead of fifteen hundred. My friends perceived the agreeable change in my appearance, and congratulated me on my doing so well. Even Mr. Norwood was deceived. He was not familiar with what I was about from day to day, and did not know, and I did not tell him I had abandoned my original occupation. But his congratulations embarrassed me. It seemed as if I were deceiving him by receiving them. However, things went on pleasantly during the heyday of that speculative dream. I