It was with a confluence of emotions which he would have found it impossible to analyze that John Brancker left home for the Bank. The familiar streets seemed as fresh and strange to him as if his feet had not trodden their pavements for years. On his way he met more than one friend who stopped and shook hands with him, and would fain have detained him, had he not been in a hurry to keep his appointment; others there were who greeted him with a smile and a cheery "Good-morning;" while others again--such as merely knew him by sight--stared him hard in the face as they drew near, and then turned to stare again when he had passed. On reaching the Bank he avoided the general office, and going straight to the door of Mr. Avison's room, he knocked. A sigh that was half a sob caught his breath as he passed the unforgotten door of Mr. Hazeldine's room. What had not he gone through since he set eyes on it last! A voice, which he recognized as Mr. Avison's, bade him enter, and he went in. The Banker was a tall chin, grizzled man, with a natural stoop of the shoulders, a high, narrow forehead, features pinched by chronic ill-health, cold and somewhat glassy-looking eyes, a long upper lip, and a hard yet querulous-looking mouth. He was an able financier, and loved his profession; and it was only in obedience to his doctor's positive orders that he had torn himself away from it even for a time. He was a man who prided himself on being strictly just in his dealings with others; but your very just men are liable to forget that there is another goddess called Mercy, who is twin-sister to her at whose shrine they bend the knee. This was a fact which Mr. Avison either did not know, or else failed to recognize. Without being himself aware of it, he was what is commonly called a "hard man." For the ordinary weaknesses and foibles of his fellows he had nothing but a sort of cold contempt. Temptations such as those which are supposed to follow in the train of riches passed him by and left him unmoved. There were many points of resemblance, both mental and ethical, between Mr. Avison and Edward Hazeldine.