r rudder and our guide the world's great axiom, "RICHES ARE
VIRTUE--POVERTY IS VICE." "Assume the _virtue_, if you have it not;"
assume its shows and appearances, its tricks, its offences, and its
crimes, rather than confess your nakedness. Be liberal and prodigal, if
it must be, with the crown you need to pay your necessary lodging; adorn
with velvet and with silk the body that grows sick for lack of wholesome
food; bribe, beyond their expectation, the pampered things in livery
that stand between you and the glory you aspire to--bribe them, though
to part with money is to lose your meal. Upon this broad principle it
was, that Walter Bellamy existed--in virtue of it he held lands, and by
its means he had become a partner in the bank, an active one, as very
soon he proved himself to be. His property was estimated by shrewd
calculators at a hundred thousand pounds--that, at the very least. And
Bellamy chuckled at his fireside--no one being by--at the universal
gullibility of man. A hundred thousand pounds! Why, he could not--at any
one period during the last twenty years, command as many farthings. What
right had strangers to calculate for him? What right had Allcraft to
depend upon such calculations? We may well ask the question, since Mr
Bellamy did so, when he endeavoured, as the worst of us will do, to
justify bad conduct to an unfaithful conscience. Why, what was he? a
simple _locum tenens_ of a dozen mortgagees, who had advanced upon the
estate a great deal more money than it would ever realize, if forced to
sale--a haughty, overbearing man, (though very benevolent to postboys
and other serving men,) a magistrate, and a great disciplinarian. This
was the amount of his pretensions, and yet men worshipped him. It was
surely not the fault of Mr Bellamy, but rather his good fortune; and if
he chose to make the most of it, he was a wise and prudent personage.
When it is borne in mind that the possessions of Mr Bellamy were
involved beyond their actual worth--that for some time he had lived in a
perpetual dread of exposure and utter ruin--that for years he had looked
abroad for some kind friend, who, if not altogether willing, might still
be prevailed upon to release him from his difficulties--it will be easy
to understand his very great desire to confer on Michael Allcraft all
the advantages of his own position and high character.

The part which Bellamy had taken in the business of the house, was very
inconsiderable unti