Every month, as pay-day came round, he made a resolution that he would dine sparely, and drink nothing but water, and return at the proper hour. But the resolution had been so constantly broken, that he had no faith in his own power to keep it, and always took care, on such occasions, to leave matters so that his absence might attract as little attention as possible. More than once he had been nearly dismissed for this very offence, but his fellow-clerks were generally good-natured enough to invent excuses for him; and once, as we have seen, Alec had stood his friend. One o’clock struck, and the will was finished. MacGowan left his seat and went to the cashier’s room to receive the money that was due to him. That official, however, had gone out, and he returned discontentedly to his place. It happened that he and his fellow-clerk Hill were not on very good terms with each other just then, so, by way of putting off the time until the cashier’s return, he took the will and the draft from which he had copied it to Alec Lindsay, and got him to go through the process of ‘examining’ the two documents along with him--one reading the engrossed will aloud, while the other read the draft--on the plea that Hill was too busy to do it. As he returned to the outer office, he met the managing clerk. ‘Have you engrossed a will for Mr. Lindsay this morning?’ asked Mr. Beattie. ‘Yes, sir; just finished it.’ ‘If you bring it to my room, I will examine it with you. I don’t want Hill to be taken from what he is doing.’ This was an unusual kind offer for Mr. Beattie to make; but MacGowan, of course, answered: ‘Mr. Lindsay has examined it with me.’ ‘Oh, very good,’ said Beattie, as he passed out of the office. MacGowan waited impatiently until about two o’clock, when the cashier made his appearance. By that time he was very hungry, and thirsty as well. ‘I want my salary, if you please,’ said he, as soon as the cashier was seated at his desk. ‘It’s early in the day, MacGowan,’ said the cashier. ‘Better let me give you only a shilling or two now. If you take it all, the chances are you won’t make your appearance again to-day, and you know what the consequence of that must be, sooner or later.’ ‘I’ll be back at three, Mr. Carter, never fear,’ said the clerk. ‘You had better not take it all at present.’ ‘I must take it all, sooner or later,’ answered MacGowan in a hard, stubborn voice; ‘and little enough it is. Give it to me, Mr. Carter.’ A few minutes afterwards MacGowan was hurrying along in the direction of a large tavern near the office, where he usually dined on high days. If he had not been so intent upon getting there, he would have noticed Mr. William Beattie walking slowly along, on the other side of the street.