the Bank, is open to a doubt. A young man,
uncle, whose rising has been rapid, whose hopes have been lofty, whose
life may or may not be known to himself as pure, but which in the eyes
of a matured man of the world might easily be questioned, just because
its hopes are so lofty and its means for attaining them so limited."

"Bertram!" sprang from Mr. Sylvester's white lips.

But the young man raised his hand with almost a commanding gesture.
"Hush," said he, "no sympathy or surprise. Facts like these have to be
met with silent endurance, as we walk up to the mouth of the cannon we
cannot evade, or bare our breast to the thrust of the bayonet gleaming
before our eyes.--I would not have you think," he somewhat hurriedly
pursued, "that Mr. Stuyvesant insinuated anything of the kind, but his
daughter was not present in the parlor, and--" A sigh, almost a gasp
finished the sentence.

"Bertram!" again exclaimed his uncle, this time with some authority in
his voice. "The shock of this discovery has unnerved you. You act like a
man capable of being suspected. That is simply preposterous. One half
hour's conversation with Mr. Stuyvesant on my part will convince him, if
he needs convincing, which I do not believe, that whoever is unworthy of
trust in our bank, you are not the man."

Bertram raised his head with a gleam of hope, but instantly dropped it
again with a despairing gesture that made his uncle frown.

"I did not know that you were inclined to be so pusillanimous," cried
Mr. Sylvester; "and in presence of a foe so unsubstantial as this you
have conjured up almost out of nothing. If the bank has been robbed, it
cannot be difficult to find the thief. I will order in detectives
to-morrow. We will hold a board of inquiry, and the culprit shall be
unmasked; that is, if he is one of the employees of the bank, which it
is very hard to believe."

"Very, and which, if true, would make it unadvisable in us to give the
alarm that any public measures taken could not fail to do."

"The inquiry shall be private, and the detectives, men who can be
trusted to keep their business secret."

"How can any inquiry be private? Uncle, we are treading on delicate
ground, and have a task before us requiring great tact and discretion.
If the safe had only been assaulted, or there were any evidences of
burglary to be seen! But we surely should have heard of it from some one
of the men, if anything unusual had been observed. Hopgood would