One morning, as by sunrise my father was going to the garden--it was to decorate a bridal arbour which we had constructed for the occasion--I heard from him, as he passed through the inner room, a cry of astonishment and dismay, and hurrying in, found him gazing in horror upon an open and, alas, empty box--it was the one in which Bianca’s long hoarded dower had been kept! All was gone--the hardly gathered earnings, the borrowed money, and with it all our mirthful plans and sparkling expectations; and, though a grave, strong-minded man, he was for the time quite crushed and broken by the shock. ‘Carlo,’ said he, ‘we are ruined, utterly undone. Villains have plundered us: your sister’s heart will be broken, and there is nothing left for us but despair. These weakened limbs could not go through such another term of trial in the face of such misfortune. It will be well if they last long enough to earn what will meet the demands of Bartolo the broker. Your brother, to whom we might else have looked for aid, is getting worse and worse in his evil ways: he has turned--that ever I should have to speak such words of son of mine!--yes, turned a worthless profligate and gamester. The God of Heaven grant,’ continued he, turning ghastly pale, and staggering against the wall as his eye fell upon a well-known knife, that, with its blade broken, lay upon the floor, ‘that it be not even worse. Carlo, look on that, and tell me, O tell me, that you know it not!’ With horror I recognized my unhappy brother’s knife; and a fragment of the steel fixed in the box showed too plainly in what base work it had been employed. I was struck speechless at the sight; but in defiance of all evidence, when I thought of my warm-hearted generous brother, I burned with anger at myself for my momentary misgiving, and almost fiercely chid my father for his dark suspicion. ‘Carlo,’ answered he gravely, ‘you are yet childish and inexperienced, and know not the power of evil company, the blight of that accursed vice upon every principle of truth and honesty. Your brother, I have told you, is an abandoned gambler--consorts with all the dregs and refuse of the country, mocks at the entreaties of a mother, the warnings of a father, the honest, ay, till he bore it, the ever honest name of his family; and he who does all this, will, time and temptation pressing him, but feebly shrink from the basest act. But go,’ added he with stern emphasis, ‘call him. Though guilty, I will see him face to face before I lay my curse upon him.’ With fear and trembling, for I knew how terrible my father’s temper was when roused, I was obliged to confess that he had not spent the night at home; and his forehead grew still gloomier and more wrinkled as he listened. He said nothing, but fell upon a seat, folded his arms, and remained looking fixedly upon the ground in great and fearful agony of thought.