ed dollars. The note was for six months, and fell due to-day. I
also gave a note for your new sofa, chairs, and French bedstead,
because I had no cash with which to pay the bill. It was two hundred
and fifty dollars, and the note given at four months. That also fell
due to-day. Now, apart from these, I had more than my hands full to
take up business paper, this being an unusually heavy day. At every
point where I could do so I borrowed; but at half-past two o'clock I
was still short the amount of these two notes. While in the utmost
doubt and perplexity as to what I should do in my difficulty, two notes
were handed in. One contained a dry goods bill which you had run up of
over a hundred and fifty dollars, and the other a shoe bill of
twenty-five. I cannot describe to you the paralyzing sense of
discouragement that instantly came over me. It is hopeless for me to
struggle on at such a disadvantage, said I to myself--utterly hopeless.
And I determined to give up the struggle--to let my notes lie over, and
thus end the unequal strife in which I was engaged; for, to this, I saw
it must come at last. Full twenty minutes went by, and I still sat in
this state of irresolution. Then, as a vivid perception of consequences
came to my mind, I aroused myself to make a last, desperate effort.
Hurriedly drawing a note at thirty days for five hundred dollars, I
took it to a money-lender, whom I knew I could tempt by the offer of a
large discount. He gave me for it a check on the bank in which my notes
were deposited, for four hundred and fifty dollars. Just as the clock
was striking three, I entered the banking-house.'

"My husband paused. I saw by the workings of his face and by the large
beads of perspiration which stood upon his forehead, that he was indeed
in earnest. I never was so startled by any thing in my life. It seemed
for a time as if it were only a dream. I need not say how sincerely I
repented of what I had done, nor how I earnestly promised my husband
never again to contract a debt of even a dollar without his knowledge.
I hope," added Mrs. Claxton, "that you have not yet been influenced by
my advice and example; and I come thus early to speak in your ears a
word of caution. Pray do not breathe aught of what I have told you--it
might injure my husband--I only make the revelation as a matter of duty
to one I tried to lead astray."

The thoughts of Mrs. Ellis did not run in a more peaceful channel after
the departure of