the other hand, however, I would have you to consider whether you
could not, at a perceptibly less cost, attain the same results as
regards your future in the diplomatic profession.

"Especially would I exhort you to keep regular accounts. Not so much
that I desire to limit your expenditure, as that, according to my own
experience, such accounts are an aid to self-control."

But accounts, and especially regular ones, were not to Richard's
liking. Sometimes, indeed, he pretended to render them; but the
letter soon drifted into jests and amusing stories, which diverted
his father, and made him forget all about the money.

Christian Frederik, however, had sent regular monthly extracts from
his account book ever since he had been at the Institute in
Christiania, and these extracts were scrutinized by his father with
unfailing rigour.

If there was any error in the address, not to mention any mistake in
the posting up, or if any item appeared which seemed unusual or
excessive, the son received a sharp admonition, warning him that
inaccuracy or extravagance were absolutely unpardonable in a man of
business.

This kept Christian Frederik in constant dread of his father, and
sometimes he felt much hurt; but he would have been consoled had he
known with what satisfaction the Consul examined these well-kept
accounts, and with what care they were filed and laid aside in a
certain drawer.

Christian Frederik, however, was the only person whom the Consul
admitted to his confidence, and in the copious letters which he wrote
to him at least once a month, he kept him informed upon business
matters. Latterly, too, he had sometimes asked him his opinion upon
one thing or another. The Consul was much interested, and to some
degree disturbed, by the development of the town during the last two
years. Moneyed strangers, who bought and cured herrings on their own
account, shipping them off by thousands of barrels in the spring
season, began to appear.

Large fortunes were made by the Haugians and others, who interlarded
their business letters with Scripture phrases, and who had not the
least idea of book-keeping.

The town was alive with stir and business, mixed up with religion, to
the unceasing astonishment of the old merchant. Money, too, was
abundant among these new folks.

At this period the anxieties of the Consul were revived, but he kept
them to himself. On no account should Christian Frederik know what
difficulties he