d just passed, a little daughter came
into the parlour, and seeing him, came prattling merrily to his
side. But in attempting to clamber upon his knee, she was pushed away
rudely, and with angry words. For a few moments she stood looking at
him, her little breast rising and falling rapidly; then she turned
off, and went slowly, and with a grieving heart, from the room.

Jasper sighed heavily as the child passed out of sight; and rising up,
began moving about with a slow pace, his eyes cast upon the floor.
The more he dwelt upon the visit of Martin--whom, in his heart, he had
wished dead--the more uneasy he felt, and the more he regretted having
let him depart in anger. He would give twice ten thousand dollars
rather than meet the exposure which this man could make.

Riches was the god of Leonard Jasper. Alas! how little power was there
in riches to make his heart happy. Wealth beyond what he had hoped to
obtain in a whole lifetime of devotion to mammon, had flowed in upon
him in two or three short years. But, was he a happier man? Did he
enjoy life with a keener zest? Was his sleep sweeter? Ah, no! In all
that went to make up the true pleasure of life, the humble clerk,
driven to prolonged hours of labour, beyond what his strength could
well bear, through his ill-nature and injustice, was far the richer
man. And his wealth consisted not alone in the possession of a clear
conscience and a sustaining trust in Providence. There was the love of
many hearts to bless him. In real household treasures few were as rich
as he.

But, in home treasures, how poor was Leonard Jasper! Poor to the
extreme of indigence! The love of his children, reaching toward him
spontaneously its tendrils, he rejected in the selfish devotion of
every thought and feeling to business as a means of acquiring wealth.
And as to the true riches, which many around him were laying up where
no moth could corrupt nor thieves break through and steal, he rejected
them as of no account.

With such a man as Leonard Jasper, holding the position of head of a
family, how little of the true home spirit, so full of tenderness and
mutual love, is to be expected! Had Mrs. Jasper been less a woman of
the world; had she been capable of loving any thing out of herself,
and, therefore, of loving her husband and children, with that true
love which seeks their higher good, a different state of things would
have existed in this family, spite of Jasper's unfeeling sordidness