n with which the General answered, after some little
embarrassment:

"One hundred and sixty thousand dollars."

"Why!" cried Jabel Blake, "that is nearly as much as it takes to start
the Ross Valley bank. Take care! Take care! Beware, Elk MacNair, of
getting into debt at your time of life. It makes gray hairs come. It
breaks up domestic pleasure. It mortgages tranquil years. Neither a
borrower nor a lender be! That's Bible talk, and the Bible is not only
the best book for the family, but the best business book besides."

"I don't mean to run in debt," said the General, with a look, perhaps
surly; "I mean to buy into the firm with cash."

"Bosh!" said Jabel Blake, rising up, "where did you get one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars, Elk MacNair?"

"If you were not claiming to its fullest extent the privilege of my
father's friend, Jabel, I should tell you that it was none of your
business! I will have made the money by the practice of law in the
City of Washington."

"Dear me, Elk," said his brother, quietly; "I don't presume to be
worth five thousand dollars, all told. But I suppose you have genius
and opportunity, and the times are wondrous for men of acquaintance
and enterprise."

Jabel Blake stared at Elk MacNair a long while without speaking.

II.

The sudden revelation that Elk MacNair was very rich had, on the
whole, a depressing effect. Kate Dunlevy, who had expected to marry
purely for love, found with a little chagrin that she was also
marrying for money. The Judge was led to remark upon the curiosities
of a speculative age and a fluctuating currency, and said he longed
for the solid times of hard coin, cheap prices, easy stages, and a
Jeffersonian republic. As for Jabel Blake, he was too late for that
day to deposit his bonds at the Treasury and obtain the currency for
the Ross Valley bank, so he went sauntering around the city, grim as a
defeated office-seeker.

The brothers also made some calls, and Arthur MacNair was puzzled and
at the same time pleased, to find that his dashing junior knew
everybody, had something to chat about with innumerable strangers or
members, and was freely admitted to any public office he desired. They
came home at twilight, quite fatigued, and found Jabel Blake lying on
a bed in the inner chamber, fast asleep.

"Dreaming of his bank!" said Elk MacNair; "what a metallic soul must
Jabel's be! His very voice rattles like money. His features are cut
hard as a face on a