se in his dealings with me, 'I'm, saving for
my boy, Archie.' Eh? But it ain't always three generations from
shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves; you've made a short cut of it! But
you're going to do the wise thing, John; you've been a fool here, now go
away and be a man! Let all devilishness alone and work hard; that's the
antidote for idleness, and it's overmuch of idleness that's been your
ruin."

"I imagine it is," said North cheerfully.

"You'll be making a clever man out of yourself, John," McBride continued
graciously. "Not a flash in the pan like your friend Marshall Langham
yonder. It's drink will do for him the same as it did for his
grandfather, it's in the blood; but that was before your time."

"I've heard of him; a remarkably able lawyer, wasn't he?"

"Pooh! You'll hear a plenty of nonsense talked, and by very sensible
people, too, about most drunken fools! He was a spender and a
profligate, was old Marshall Langham; a tavern loafer, but a man of
parts. Yes, he had a bit of a brain, when he was sober and of a mind to
use it."

One would scarcely have supposed that Archibald McBride, silent,
taciturn, money-loving, possessed the taste for scandal that North knew
he did possess. The old merchant continued garrulously.

"They are a bad lot, John, those Langhams, but it took the smartest one
of the whole tribe to get the better of me. I never told you that
before, did I? It was old Marshall himself, and he flattered me into
loaning him a matter of a hundred dollars once; I guess I have his note
somewhere yet. But I swore then I'd have no more dealings with any of
them, and I'm likely to keep my word as long as I keep my senses. It's
the little things that prick the skin; that make a man bitter. I suppose
the judge's boy has had his hand in your pocket? He looks like a man
who'd be free enough with another's purse."

But North shook his head.

"No, no, I have only myself to blame," he said.

"What do you hear of his wife? How's the marriage turning out?" and he
shot the young fellow a shrewd questioning glance.

"I know nothing about it," replied North, coloring slightly.

"She'll hardly be publishing to the world that she's married a drunken
profligate--"

This did not seem to North to call for an answer, and he attempted none.
He turned and moved toward the front of the store, followed by the old
merchant. At the door he paused.

"Thank you for your kindness, Mr. McBride!"

"It was no kindness, j