"You will not do so imprudent a thing? I will do anything for him—anything you require. I promise you, on my honour;" and the stately head of the great house of Russell, Rollins, & Co. sank into a chair, and bent down, like a convicted criminal.

"I cannot trust you," I said, pacing the room.

"Thee can, Edmund; he means it. He is sorry for the wrong he's done," said the old book-keeper, in the mild winning tone which made me so love him in my boyhood.

"Well, let him prove that he means it; let him tell you all; let him tell you how much he has to repent of!" "I have told him all. I told him years ago."

"Did you tell him how you cast off the poor girl? how for years she vainly plead for a paltry pittance to keep her child from starving, and herself from sin? Did you tell him how you drove her from you with curses, when she prayed to be saved from the pit of infamy into which you had plunged her? Did you tell him"-and he writhed on his seat in such agony as only the guilty can feel "how, at last, after all those wretched years, she died of starvation and disease, with all that mountain of sin on her soul, and all of it heaped on her by you!"

"Oh, no; I did not-I could not tell him that! I did not know I had done that!" groaned the stately gentleman.

"You lie, John Hallet! you know you lie! and may God deal with you as you dealt with her;" and I took up my hat, and laid my hand on the door. "Stop! stop, Edmund! Don't go with those words. Thee would not have God deal with thee, as thee has dealt with others?" said David, in the same mild tone as before. "True, David; I should not wish him harm; but I loathe and detest the hypocritical villain. Frank shall leave him to-night, and for ever!"

Hallet looked up. His face was pale as marble, and his hands clenched tightly the arms of his chair. "Don't go, Mr Kirke," he cried; "stay one moment. Can't this be arranged?"

"Yes, sir. Sign a dissolution at once-here-NOW; and give Frank your cheque for twenty thousand dollars.

"No, no! You don't mean that! It is too much-you can't ask that!" gasped the great merchant.

"Too much for the son of a man worth a million? Too much for starving his mother, and turning him adrift at seven years old? It is not enough! He must have thirty thousand!"

"You are mad, Mr Kirke!" and he looked at me with a pleading face. "I cannot pay that amount down. It is impossible."

“David, how much has he in bank on private account?” Hallet cast a beseeching glance at his book-keeper; but, without moving a muscle, the old man replied—

"Fifty-three thousand."

"I knew you lied, Hallet. It is natural to you. "But I can't let Frank go without Mr Cragin's consent."

"I will arrange with Cragin. Sign the cheque, and draw the paper at once, or I go."

"But give me time to think-
-see me to-morrow."

"I shall never exchange a word with you after to-night. You can have ten minutes-not a second more;" and I took out my watch to count the time.

He rested his head on his hand for a moment, and then, turning to me, said—

"You promise that this interview, and all that has passed, shall never be mentioned by you?"

"That depends on yourself-never without cause. "David, please write the cheque,” said the senior partner, proceeding himself to draw up the agreement. In a few minutes he handed it to me. It was short, and merely recited that the copartnership which had theretofore existed between John Hallet, Augustus Cragin, and Henry F. Mandell, under the name and style of Russell, Rollins, & Co., was on that day dissolved by mutual consent; said Mandell withdrawing, and assigning the control of all the assets of said firm to said Hallet and Cragin, and releasing to said Hallet any portion of its capital and profits to which he might be entitled."

I read the document, and quietly handed it back. "That will not do, Mr Hallet. Thirty thousand dollars settles with you, his father. I have not, and shall not make

any settlement with the firm. is due him—no more, no less." "But

began Mr Hallet.

David must pay Frank what

"I have nothing more to say on the subject, sir."

son;

He drew a long sigh. The parting with an only son, and with thirty thousand dollars, at one and the same time, affected him deeply. He might have borne the loss of the but the loss of the money rent his distorted soul into fragments. However, he re-wrote the paper, and passed it It was all right; and when he had signed, and David had witnessed it, I placed it in my pocket-book.

to me.

Then, with a trembling hand, he handed me the cheque. It was drawn to my order; and I remarked, as I took it

"This is not what I require, sir. I want your cheque, indorsed by David."

"This is most unaccountable, Mr Kirke. Do you question my cheque for thirty thousand dollars?" he asked, his face flushing with anger.

"Oh! no, sir, not at all; but you might stop its payment. With David's indorsement, you would not dare to do it." "I will indorse it," said David; and he quietly proceeded

to write another.

That hard, soulless man had a wife and children; but that old book-keeper was the only living thing in all the wide world that he either loved or trusted!

I placed the cheque with the other paper, and, with David, soon passed down the old stairway.

I found Selma plunged in the deepest grief. The telegram which informed her of Preston's death was dated three days before, (it had been sent to Goldsboro for transmission, the telegraph lines not then running to Newbern,) and she could not possibly reach the plantation until after her father's burial; but she insisted on going at once. She would have his body exhumed; she must take a last look at that face which had never beamed on her but in love!

Frank proposed to escort her; but she knew he could not well be spared from business at that season; and, with a bravery and self-reliance not common to her years and her sex, she determined to go alone.

Shortly after my arrival at the house, she retired to her room with Kate, to make the final arrangements for the journey; and I seated myself with David, Cragin, and Frank, in the little back parlour, which the gray-haired old Quaker and his son-in-law had converted into a smoking-room. As Cragin was lighting his cigar, I said to him-

"Have you heard the news?"

"What news?"

"The dissolution of Russell, Rollins, & Co."

"No; there's nothing so good stirring. But you'll hear it some two years hence."

"Read that;" and I handed him the paper which Hallet had signed.

"What is it, father?" asked Frank, his face alive with interest.

"Cragin will shew it to you, if it ever gets through his hair. I reckon he's learning to read."

"Well, I believe I can't read. What the deuce does it mean?"

"Just what it says-Frank is free."

The young man glanced over the paper. pressed surprise, but he said nothing.

His face ex

"Then you've heard how things have been going on?" asked Cragin.

“No, not a word. I've seen that Hallet was abusing the boy shamefully. I came on, wanting an excuse to break

the copartnership."

"Do you know you've done me the greatest service in the world? I told Hallet, the other day, that we couldn't pull together much longer. He refused to let me off till our term is up; but I've got him now;" and he laughed in boyish glee.

"Of course the paper releases you as well as Frank. a general dissolution."

It's

"Of course it is. How did you manage to get it? Hallet must have been crazy. He wasn't John Hallet, that's certain!" "The genuine John, but a little excited."

"He must have been. But I'm rid of him, thank the Lord! Come, what do you say to Frank's going in with me? I'll pack him off to Europe at once-he can secure most of the old business."

"He must decide about that. He can come with me, if he likes. He'll not go a-begging, that's certain. He'll have thirty thousand to start with."

"Thirty thousand!" exclaimed Frank. "No, father, you can't do that; you need dollar you 've got."

every

"Yes, I do, and more, too. But the money is yours, not mine. You shall have it to-morrow."

"Mine! Where did it come from?"

66

From a relative of yours.

want to be known."

But he's modest-he don't

"But I ought to know. I thought I had no relatives." "Well, you haven't-only this one, and he's rich as mud. He gave you the five thousand; but this is a last instalment -you won't get another red cent."

"I don't feel exactly like taking money in that way." "Pshaw, my boy! I tell you it's yours-rightfully and honestly. You ought to have more; but he's close-fisted, and you must be content with this."

"Well, Frank," said Cragin, "what do you say to hitching horses with me? I'll give you two-fifths, and put a hundred against your thirty.'

"What shall I do?" said Frank to me.

"You'd better accept. It's more than I can allow you.' "Then it's a trade?" asked Cragin.

"Yes," said Frank.

Well, old gentleman, what do you say-will you move the old stool?" said Cragin, addressing David.

"Yes; I like Frank too well to stay with even his father." In the gleeful mood which had taken possession of the old man, the words slipped from his tongue before he was aware of it. He would have recalled them on the instant, but it was too late. Cragin caught them, and exclaimed"His father! Well, that explains some riddles. I won't call the new firm Hallet, Cragin, & Co. him all around-ha! ha!"

Frank seemed thunderstruck.

questions.

Dd if
I've got

Soon he plied me with

"I can say nothing-I gave my word I would not. David has betrayed it; let him explain, if he pleases.

The old book-keeper then told the young man his history, revealing everything but the degradation of his poor mother. Frank walked the room, struggling with contending emotions. When David concluded, he put his hand in mine, and spoke a few low words. His voice sounded like his mother's. was again her blessing that I heard.

It

Two weeks afterward, the old sign came down from the old warehouse-came down, after hanging there three-quarters of a century, and in its place went up a black board, on which, emblazoned in glaring gilt letters, were the two words

"JOHN HALLET."

On the same day, the busy crowd passing up old Long Wharf might have seen, over a doorway not far distant, a plainer sign. It read

"CRAGIN, MANDELL, & Co."

CHAPTER XXIV.

A HURRIED JOURNEY.

KATE heard frequently from Selma within the first two months after her departure, but then her letters suddenly