The heedlessness of George brought his purse to a state of emptiness. His last guinea was gone, and two months were wanting to the end of the quarter. George had played and been cheated. He had ventured to apply to his mother for small sums, when his dress or some trifling indulgence required an advance; and always with success. But here were sixty guineas gone at a blow, and pride, candor, forbade his concealing the manner of his loss, if he made the application. This was dreadful; his own conscience reproached him, and he had so often witnessed the violence of his mother's resentments against Francis, for faults which appeared to him very trivial, not to stand in the utmost dread of her more just displeasure in the present case. Entering the apartment of his brother, in this disturbed condition, George threw himself into a chair, and with his face concealed between his hands, sat brooding over his forlorn situation. "George!" said his brother, soothingly, "you are in distress; can I relieve you in any way?" "Oh no--no--no--Frank; it is entirely out of your power." "Perhaps not, my dear brother," continued the other, endeavoring to draw his hand into his own. "Entirely! entirely!" said George. Then springing up in despair, he exclaimed, "But I must live--I cannot die." "Live! die!" cried Francis, recoiling in horror. "What do you mean by such language? Tell me, George, am I not your brother? Your only brother and best friend?" Francis felt he had no friend if George was not that friend, and his face grew pale while the tears flowed rapidly down his cheeks. George could not resist such an appeal. He caught the hand of his brother and made him acquainted with his losses and his wants. Francis mused some little time over his narration, ere he broke silence. "It was all you had?" "The last shilling," cried George, beating his head with his hand. "How much will you require to make out the quarter?" "Oh I must have at least fifty guineas, or how can I live at all?" The ideas of life in George were connected a good deal with the manner it was to be enjoyed. His brother appeared struggling with himself, and then turning to the other, continued, "But surely, under present circumstances, you could make less do." "Less, never--hardly that"--interrupted George, vehemently. "If Lady Margaret did not inclose me a note now and then, how could we get along at all? don't you find it so yourself, brother?" "I don't know," said Francis, turning pale-- "Don't know!" cried George, catching a view of his altered countenance-- "you get the money, though?" "I do not remember it," said the other, sighing heavily. "Francis," cried George, comprehending the truth, "you shall share every shilling I receive in future--you shall--indeed you shall." "Well, then," rejoined Francis with a smile, "it is a bargain; and you will receive from me a supply in your present necessities."