in his great shrewdness, his speculations
outside of the business did not turn out very favourably. His first
essay was in the purchase of stocks, on which he lost, in a week, two
thousand dollars.

Like the gamester who loses, he only played deeper, in the hope of
recovering his losses; and as it often happens with the gamester, in
similar circumstances, the deeper he played, the more he lost.

And so it went on. Sometimes the young man had a turn of good fortune,
and sometimes all the chances went against him. But he was too far
committed to recede without a discovery. There was no standing still;
and so newer and bolder operations were tried, involving larger and
larger sums of money, until the responsibilities of the firm, added
to the large cash drafts made without the cognizance of Jasper, were
enormous.

To all such mad schemes the end must come; and the end came in this
instance. Failing to procure, by outside operations, sufficient money
to meet several large notes, he was forced to divulge a part of his
iniquity to Jasper, in order to save the credit of the firm. Suspicion
of a deeper fraud being thereby aroused in the mind of his partner,
time, and a sifting investigation of the affairs of the house,
revealed the astounding fact that Parker had abstracted in money, and
given the notes of the firm for his own use, to the enormous amount of
fifty thousand dollars.

A dissolution of co-partnership took place in consequence. Parker,
blasted in reputation, was dragged before a court of justice, in order
to make him disgorge property alleged to be in his possession. But
nothing could be found; and he was finally discharged from custody.
The whole loss fell upon Jasper. He had nursed a serpent in his bosom,
warming it with the warmth of his own life; and the serpent had stung
him. Is it any wonder?

This circumstance, the discovery of Parker's fraudulent doings, took
place about two years prior to the time when Fanny Elder attained her
legal age.

The first thought of Jasper, after his separation from Parker, which
took place immediately on discovering that he had used the credit of
the firm improperly, was to send for Claire, and offer him a salary
of a thousand dollars a year, to come in and fill the responsible
position as clerk, from which Parker had just been ejected as partner.

"I can trust him fully," said Jasper to himself; "and I don't know
anybody else that I can trust. He is honest; I will give