[Illustration: A LONELY HOUSE. Page 40.] LIVING TOO FAST; OR, The Confessions of a Bank Officer, BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS, (_Oliver Optic_.) AUTHOR OF “IN DOORS AND OUT,” “THE WAY OF THE WORLD,” “YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD,” &C. &C. _ILLUSTRATED._ BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK: CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM, 1876. COPYRIGHT, By WILLIAM T. ADAMS, 1876. Electrotyped by C. C. Morse & Son, Haverhill, Mass. PREFACE. The story contained in this volume records the experience of a bank officer, “living too fast,” in the downward career of crime. The writer is entirely willing now to believe that this career ought to have ended in the state prison; but his work is a story, and he has chosen—perhaps unhappily—to punish the defaulter in another way. Yet running through the narrative for the sake of the contrast, is the experience of a less showy, but more honest young man than the principal character, who represents the true life the young business man ought to lead. The author is not afraid that any of his young friends who may read this book will be tempted into an “irregularity” by the example of the delinquent bank officer, for it will be found that his career of crime is full of remorse and positive suffering. DORCHESTER, JULY 1, 1876. CONTENTS. PAGE. CHAPTER I. GETTING A SITUATION, 11 CHAPTER II. MISS LILIAN OLIPHANT, 27 CHAPTER III. GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING, 42 CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH BASEMENT HOUSE, 57 CHAPTER V. LILIAN ASTONISHED—SO AM I, 72 CHAPTER VI. A FAMILY JAR, 87 CHAPTER VII. A SHADOW OF SUSPICION, 102 CHAPTER VIII. COMING TO THE POINT, 116 CHAPTER IX. A LONELY HOUSE, 131 CHAPTER X. MY WIFE AND I, 145 CHAPTER XI. OVER THE PRECIPICE, 160 CHAPTER XII. A KEEPER IN THE HOUSE, 174 CHAPTER XIII. THE SECOND STEP, 187 CHAPTER XIV. THE HOUSE-WARMING, 201 CHAPTER XV. MY UNCLE IS SAVAGE, 214 CHAPTER XVI. CORMORIN AND I, 228 CHAPTER XVII. PROVIDING FOR THE WORST, 242 CHAPTER XVIII. BUSTUMUPS AT FIFTY, 256 CHAPTER XIX. A CRASH IN COPPERS, 270 CHAPTER XX. THE LAST STEP, 283