o those
unacquainted with the real value of money, a large sum always appears
inexhaustible. So it was with me. I spent, without calculating the
cost, and soon lost all. The world now wore a very different aspect. I
was deserted by all my gay associates; my most intimate companions
passed me in the streets without recognition. I knew that this would be
the result of my altered fortunes, yet the reality cut me to the heart.

"These are mortifying lessons, which experience, wisdom's best
counsellor, daily teaches us; and a man must either be very
self-conceited, or very insensible, who cannot profit by her valuable
instructions. The hour which brought to me the humiliating conviction,
that I was a person of no consequence; that the world could go on very
well without me; that my merry companions would not be one jot less
facetious, though I was absent from their jovial parties, was after all
not the most miserable of my life.

"I woke as from a dream. The scales had fallen from my eyes. I knew
myself--and became a wiser and better man. I called all my creditors
together, discharged my debts, and found myself free of the world in
the most liberal sense.

"Good Heavens!" I exclaimed. "How could you bear such a dreadful
reverse with such fortitude--such magnanimity?"

"You give me greater credit than I deserve, Geoffrey: my imprudent
conduct merited a severe punishment, and I had sense enough to discern
that it was just. After the first shock was over, I felt happier in my
poverty than I had ever done during my unmerited prosperity. I had
abused the gifts of fortune while they were mine, and I determined to
acquire an independence by my own exertions. A friend, whom I had
scarcely regarded as such, during my reckless career of folly, came
unexpectedly to my assistance, and offered to purchase for me a
commission in the army, but I had private reasons for wishing to obtain
a situation in this office. Writing a good hand, and having been
originally educated for the profession, together with the
recommendation of Mr. Bassett who was related to my friend, procured me
the place I now hold."

"And your reasons for coming here?" I cried, burning with curiosity.

"Pardon me, Geoffrey. That is my secret."

He spoke with the calmness of a philosopher, but I saw his emotion, as
his eyes turned mechanically to the parchment he was copying, and
affected an air of cheerful resignation.

The candid exposure of his past faults and