or the amount I had asked for into my hands, I was fully
assured that he was in earnest. I don't know that I ever stopped to
thank him, so overjoyed was I at such unexpected and cheerfully tendered
relief. Three or four days afterward I took him the money he had loaned
me.

"'Keep it longer, if you desire to do so. I have no present use for it,'
said he.

"I hardly knew whether to take him at his word or not. But necessity is
an eloquent pleader.

"'If you can spare it as well as not, it will be an accommodation. My
payments are heavy in the next ten days,' I replied.

"'Retain the use of it and welcome,' said he kindly. After a pause, he
inquired how I was getting along, and did it with so much sincerity
that I was tempted to state frankly the position of my affairs, and did
so. He listened with a good deal of interest, and afterward asked many
questions as to the nature and profits of my business. I concealed
nothing from him in favour or against myself as a business-man.

"'You must be sustained, Mr. Miller,' said he. 'I have a few thousand
dollars uninvested, that I will keep free for six months or so. As far
as you need assistance in meeting your payments, I will afford it. Pay
no more exorbitant interests; waste no more time in running about after
money; but put all your thoughts and energies down to your business, and
twelve months from to-day will see you freed from embarrassment.'

"And he was right."

"He was certainly a noble fellow," said Mr. Jones. "Pity there were not
more like him!"

"That it is," remarked Mrs. Mayberry.

"He belongs to another grade of beings than your Montos."

"Who?" Miller spoke quickly.

"We were talking of Monto when I called you," said Mr. Berry. "Our
friends have a very poor opinion of him."

"Of Mr. Monto? Why, it is of him that I just now spoke."

"Of Monto!" ejaculated Lee.

"Certainly. He it was who so generously befriended me."

"Impossible!" ejaculated Mrs. Mayberry.

"Not at all, for it is true. I never was more mistaken in any one in my
life than in Mr. Monto. He has his faults and defects of character, as
all men have. He is irascible and impatient, and makes in consequence a
great many enemies."

"He was certainly kind to you, Mr. Miller," said Mrs. Mayberry. "But
still, I don't believe in him. Look at the way he treated that poor
young man whom he raised from a boy. That stamps his character. That
shows him to be cruel and vindictive."

"There is