'You will not do so imprudent a thing. I will do any thing for him--any thing you require. I promise you--on my honor,' and the stately head of the great house of Russell, Rollins & Co., sank into a chair and bent down his face like a criminal in the dock. 'I can not trust you,' I said, as I paced the room, 'You can, Edmund; he means it. He is sorry for the wrong he's done,' said the old book-keeper, in that mild, winning tone which had 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 had to repent of!' 'I _have_ told him all. I told him years ago.' 'Did you tell him how you cast off that poor girl? how for years on her knees she vainly plead for a paltry pittance to keep her child from starving and herself from sin? Did you tell him how you forced her on the street? how you drove her from you with curses, when she prayed you to save her from the pit of infamy into which you had plunged her? Did you tell him,' and I hissed the words in his ear, while 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--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. You would not have God do to _you_ as you have done to others!' said David, in the same mild tone as before. 'True, David. I ought not to wish him harm; but I loathe and detest the hypocritical villain. Frank shall leave him to-night, and forever!' and again I laid my hand on the door. Mr. 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 article at once--_here_--NOW, and give Frank your check for twenty thousand dollars.' 'No, no! You don't mean that! It is too much--you can not ask _that_!' gasped the great merchant. 'Too much for the son of a man worth a million? Too much to pay for starving his mother, and turning him adrift at six years old? It is not enough! He must have _thirty_ thousand!' 'You are mad, Mr. Kirke!' And he rose, and looked at me with a pleading face. 'I can not pay that amount down. It is impossible.' 'David, how much has he in bank on private account?' Mr. Hallet cast a beseeching glance at his book-keeper; but without moving a muscle, the old man quietly 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 check and draw the paper at once, or I go.'