llars in trust from Mrs. Howard. Two years
afterwards, on that same day, the bank had, by lucky speculations,
increased that sum to the credit of the trust one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, or double the original capital. In the following
year the bank suspended payment."

CHAPTER II.

In an instant the whole situation and his relations to it flashed upon
Paul with a terrible, but almost grotesque, completeness. Here he was,
at the outset of his career, responsible for the wasted fortune of the
daughter of a social outcast, and saddled with her support! He now
knew why Colonel Pendleton had wished to see him; for one shameful
moment he believed he also knew why he had been content to take his
proxy! The questionable character of the whole transaction, his own
carelessness, which sprang from that very confidence and trust that
Pendleton had lately extolled--what WOULD, what COULD not be made of
it! He already heard himself abused by his opponents--perhaps, more
terrible still, faintly excused by his friends. All this was visible
in his pale face and flashing eyes as he turned them on the helpless
invalid.

Colonel Pendleton received his look with the same critical,
half-curious scrutiny that had accompanied his speech. At last his
face changed slightly, a faint look of disappointment crossed his eyes,
and a sardonic smile deepened the lines of his mouth.

"There, sir," he said hurriedly, as if dismissing an unpleasant
revelation; "don't alarm yourself! Take a drink of that whiskey. You
look pale. Well; turn your eyes on those walls. You don't see any of
that money laid out here--do you? Look at me. I don't look like a man
enriched with other people's money--do I? Well, let that content you.
Every dollar of that Trust fund, Hathaway, with all the interests and
profits that have accrued to it, is SAFE! Every cent of it is locked up
in government bonds with Rothschild's agent. There are the receipts,
dated a week before the bank suspended. But enough of THAT--THAT isn't
what I asked you to come and see me for."

The blood had rushed back to Paul's cheeks uncomfortably. He saw now,
as impulsively as he had previously suspected his co-trustee, that the
man had probably ruined himself to save the Trust. He stammered that
he had not questioned the management of the fund nor asked to withdraw
his proxy.

"No matter, sir," said the colonel, impatiently; "you had the right,
and I suppose," he add