ht, in consequence of some trouble with his wife, have
suddenly abandoned himself to drink. With this thought came the
remembrance of what had passed between them two days before; and this
but confirmed his first impression.

"If Mr. Ellis comes in," said he, after some moments of hurried
thought, "tell him that I would like to see him."

The clerk promised to do so.

"Hadn't you better send to his house?" suggested Wilkinson, as he
turned to leave the store. "He may be sick."

"I will do so," replied the clerk, and Wilkinson retired, feeling by no
means comfortable. By this time it was nearly one o'clock, and six or
seven hundred dollars were yet required to make him safe for that day's
payments. The failure of Ellis to keep his promise laid upon him an
additional burden, and gradually caused a feeling of despondency to
creep in upon him. Instead of making a new and more earnest effort to
raise the money, he went back to his store, and remained there for
nearly half an hour, in a brooding, disheartened state of mind. A
glance at the clock, with the minute-hand alarmingly near the figure 2,
startled him at length from his dreaming inactivity; and he went forth
again to raise, if possible, the money needed to keep his name from
commercial dishonour. He was successful; but there were only fifteen
minutes in his favour when the exact sum he needed was made up, and his
notes taken out of bank.

Two o'clock was Mr. Wilkinson's dinner hour, and he had always, before,
so arranged his bank business as to have his notes taken up long enough
before that time to be ready to leave promptly for home. But for the
failure of Ellis to keep his promise, it would have been so on this day.

"It's hardly worth while to go home now," said he, as he closed his
cash and bill books, after making some required entries therein. "Mary
has given me over long ago. And, besides, I don't feel in the mood of
mind to see her just now. I can't look cheerful, to save me; and I have
already called too many shadows to her face to darken it with any more.
By evening I will recover myself, and then can meet her with a brighter
countenance. No, I won't go home now. I'll stop around to Elder's, and
get a cut of roast beef."

Wilkinson had taken up his hat, and was moving down the store, when a
suggestion that came to his mind made him pause. It was this:

"But is not Mary waiting for me, and will not my absence for the whole
day cause her intense anxi