een to see him. I won't call him names! And we thought that
some fool of an Englishman was burning his fingers with those shares.
I'm not the only one caught, but the others can stand it. I can't, worse
luck!"

"I'm beastly sorry," Aynesworth said truthfully. "I wish I could help
you."

Nesbitt raised his head. A sudden light flashed in his eyes; he spoke
quickly, almost feverishly.

"Say, Aynesworth," he exclaimed, "do you think you could do anything
with your governor for me? You see--it's ruin if I have to pay up. I
wouldn't mind--for myself, but I was married four months ago, and I
can't bear the thought of going home--and telling her. All the money
we have between us is in my business, and we've got no rich friends
or anything of that sort. I don't know what I'll do if I have to be
hammered. I've been so careful, too! I didn't want to take this on, but
it seemed such a soft thing! If I could get off with twenty thousand,
I'd keep my head up. I hate to talk like this. I'd go down like a man
if I were alone, but--but--oh! Confound it all--!" he exclaimed with an
ominous break in his tone.

Aynesworth laid his hand upon the boy's arm.

"Look here," he said, "I'll try what I can do with Mr. Wingrave. Wait
here!"

Aynesworth found his employer alone with his broker, who was just
hastening off to keep an appointment. He plunged at once into his
appeal.

"Mr. Wingrave," he said, "you have just had a young broker named Nesbitt
on."

Wingrave glanced at a paper by his side.

"Yes," he said. "Six hundred short! I wish they wouldn't come to me."

"I've been talking to him downstairs," Aynesworth said. "This will break
him."

"Then I ought not to have done business with him at all," Wingrave said
coolly. "If he cannot find sixty thousand dollars, he has no right to
be in Wall street. I daresay he'll pay, though! They all plead
poverty--curs!"

"I think Nesbitt's case is a little different from the others,"
Aynesworth continued. "He is quite young, little more than a boy, and he
has only just started in business. To be hammered would be absolute
ruin for him. He seems such a decent young fellow, and he's only just
married. He's in an awful state downstairs. I wish you'd have another
talk with him. I think you'd feel inclined to let him down easy."

Wingrave smiled coldly.

"My dear Aynesworth," he said, "you astonish me. I am not interested
in this young man's future or in his matrimonial arrangements. He ha