"I came to see you as a last hope;" her countenance fell, and her tone was that of unalloyed despair. "I thought that remorse had been busy at your heart; that you wished to atone for the past by a just, although tardy, restitution. I thought----" "Remorse! restitution!" laughed the Financier. "Come, I like that!" "That knowing the utterly destitute condition of the father, you had summoned the daughter, in order to tender to her, at least, a portion of the wealth which you wrung from him----" Choked by emotion, she could not proceed, but grew pale and paler, until a flood of tears came to her relief. "O, sir, a pittance, a pittance, to save my father's life!" She flung herself at his feet, and clutched his knees. Her much-worn bonnet fell back upon her neck, and her hair burst its fastening, and descended in wavy masses upon her shoulders. Her face was flushed with sudden warmth; her eyes shone all the brighter for their tears. "A pittance out of your immense wealth, to save the life of your old friend, my father! His daughter begs it at your feet." Israel gazed at her deliberately through his gold spectacles,-- "Oh, no, my dear," he said, and a sneer curled his cold lip; "you are too damnably virtuous." The maiden said no more. Relaxing her grasp, she fell at his feet, and lay there, pale and insensible, her long hair floating on the carpet. The agony which she had endured in the last twenty-four hours had reached its climax. She was stretched like a dead woman at the feet of the Financier. "Trust in God,--good motto for a picture-book; but what good does it do you now my dear?" thus soliloquized Israel, as he knelt beside the insensible girl. "Don't discount that kind of paper in my bank that I know of. Fine arm, that, and splendid bust!" He surveyed her maidenly, yet rounded proportions. "If it was not for her stubborn virtue, she would make a splendid companion. Well, well,----" A vile thought worked its way through every lineament of his face. "Once in my power, all her scruples would be at an end. We are alone,"--he glanced around the cozy apartment,--"and I think I'll try the effect of an anodyne. Anodynes are good for fainting spells, I believe." He drew a slender vial from beneath his Turkish jacket, and holding it between himself and the light, examined it steadily with one eye. "It is well I thought of it! 'Twill revive her,--make her gently delirious for a while, and she will not come to herself completely until to-morrow; much surer than persuasion, and quicker! Trust in God,--a-hem!" He raised her head on his knee, and un corked the vial and held it to her lips. At that moment there was a quick, rapid knock at the door. It broke startlingly upon the dead stillness. "Why did I not lock it?" cried Israel, his hand paralyzed, even as it held the vial to the poor girl's lips. Too late! The door opened, and one by one, six sturdy men, in rough garments and with faces by no means ominous of good stalked into the room.