as he read the note, pausing at times in the
reading as if to compare me with the indications before him.

"Digby Owen,--is that the name?" asked he.

"Yes, sir."

"Native of Ireland, and never before employed in commercial pursuits?"

I nodded to this interrogatory.

"Ikam not in love with Ireland, nor do I feel a great liking
for ignorance, Herr Owen," said he, slowly; and there was a deep
impressiveness in his tone, though the words came with the thick
accentuation of the Jew. "My old friend and correspondent should have
remembered these prejudices of mine. Herr Jacob Heinfetter should not
have sent you here."

I knew not what reply to make to this, and was silent

"He should not have sent you here;" and he repeated the words with
increased solemnity. "What do you want me to do with you?" said he,
sharply, after a brief pause.

"Anything that will serve to let me earn my bread," said I, calmly.

"But I can get scores like you, young man, for the wages we give
servants here; and would you be content with that?"

"I must take what you are pleased to give me."

He rang a little bell beside him, and cried out, "Send Harasch here."
And, at the word, a short, beetle-browed, ill-favored young fellow
appeared at the door, pen in hand.

"Bring me your ledger," said the old man. "Look here now," said he to
me, as he turned over the beautifully clean and neatly kept volume:
"this is the work of one who earns six hundred florins a year. You began
with four, Harasch?"

"Three hundred, Herr Ignaz," said the lad, bowing.

"Can you live and wear such clothes as these," said the old man,
touching my tweed coat, "for three hundred florins a year,--paper
florins, mind, which in your money would make about twenty-five pounds?"

"I will do my best with it," said I, determined he should not deter me
by mere words.

"Take him with you, Harasch; let him copy into the waste-book. We shall
see in a few days what he's fit for."

At a sign from the youth I followed him out, and soon found myself in
the outer room, where a considerable number of the younger clerks were
waiting to acknowledge me.

Nothing could well be less like the manners and habits I was used
to than the coarse familiarity and easy impertinence of these young
fellows. They questioned me about my birth, my education, my means,
what circumstance had driven me to my present step, and why none of my
friends had done anything to save me from it Not content w