I could, in the very worst event, alleviate the disaster, and perhaps, through it, attain to the dearest object of my heart.

"Yes!" said I, as I mounted the stairs to my bedroom, "Davie was right. I need have no scruple in demanding what is my own. Money may be the root of all evil-though I never knew any one who carried that theory into practice-but its possession has manifold advantages; and were I to forego those, the hopes which this night's adventure have raised from the merest spark to a fervid flame might be utterly extinguished."

So I went to dream of Mary Beaton.

CHAPTER XIII.

HOW RELATIONS TRANSACT BUSINESS.

WHATEVER might be Mr Beaton's views as to the expediency of an early settlement, he showed anything but a disposition to postpone our meeting; for, next day, I received from him a letter, formal of its kind but politely worded, requesting a personal interview at his house at an early hour of the following morning. Shearaway, when I informed him of this, urged upon me very strongly the propriety of bringing matters to a speedy conclusion, observing that he had never, in the course of his long experience, known a single case in which postponed Count and Reckoning had not been attended with unhappy consequences.

"Squaring accounts, Norman," said the excellent Writer to the Signet, "is a Christian duty as well as an extraordinary comfort and convenience. Titus, the Roman Emperor (who, you mind, was son to the man that first levied a tax upon fulzie), made a point of balancing the books of his conscience every night before he went to bed, and left no scores to be settled after

wards, showing himself thereby to be a God-fearing man and an upright. If clients in general, and lairds in particular, would take a lesson from him, and insist upon having an annual redding-up of their accounts, say at Whitsunday or Martinmas, there would be less complaining than there is about the hardness of the times, and the exorbitant charges of lawyers, who, it stands to reason, have no other resource, in default of ready money, than to calculate interest on arrears. And in your case, Norman, there is especial reason why you should proceed sine mora; for you hold no kind of security whatever for your money, being therefore less favourably situated even than an agent, who, at the worst, has a lien over title-deeds. Not that I doubt Mr Beaton's sufficiency, though, truth to say, he has ower many irons in the fire; but it's aye best to be regular and exact, even though you are dealing with your brother."

I concluded from this speech that Mr Shearaway, notwithstanding his habitual caution and professional acuteness, entertained little or no suspicion that Mr Beaton's own affairs might be in a critical or embarrassed state. Nor was he singular in this. When I reflect now on the transactions of those memorable years, nothing strikes me more forcibly tha then partial blindness which seemed to affect people, who had nevertheless discretion enough to doubt the soundness of the movement. They would shake their heads and remonstrate with men who were recklessly dealing in scrip, and subscribing contracts for sums infinitely larger

than the whole amount of their worldly means. They saw, without obstructed vision, that a course so opposed to the principles both of prudence and of fair-dealing must have a wretched end; but while they thus lavished their pity and commiseration on the minnows of the shoal, it did not seem to occur to them that the larger fish, the originators, projectors, and instigators of the schemes, might be in equal, if not greater danger. It was, I suspect, a common impression, that in process of time the big fish would turn round upon and swallow the fry a notion, in some instances, not altogether without foundation; but few were so clear-sighted as to perceive that around them all, without distinction of size or weight, the net of retribution was being drawn.

It was remarkable—at least I thought so at the time-that on that very day there was a decided rally in the value of all kinds of shares pertaining to what Davie Osett had tersely denominated "Beaton's lot." There was no apparent cause for this. A parliamentary contest with another great company was still impending, which, it was thought, would be influenced by the decision of the Board of Trade, or rather the select committee to which such matters were referred; but that oracle had hitherto been mute, and its deliberations were reported to be as fenced and guarded from espial as those of the Vehmegericht, or of the mysterious conclave of Venice. Fluctuations were by no means uncommon; but this seemed to be a steady rise, which hardly could have been produced except by

a preponderance of buyers, or some gigantic operation on the part of a great capitalist. For me it was a favourable symptom, because it diminished the chances of there being any extraordinary pressure on the financial arrangements of Mr Beaton.

Moreover, in the course of the day, I encountered Ewins, who was, he told me, as busy as a gobbler in a field of maize.

"It's go ahead now, and no mistake," said the Yankee. "I've got hold of the cypher, and I guess

it's as good as second sight.”

"Any new discovery, Mr Ewins?"

"Wall, I reckon it ain't new neither. I allers had a kinder notion that it was possible to screw the cork out of every bottle; and it's all crankum to tell me that folks are closer here than they are elsewhere."

"Since you are so deeply engaged in speculation, Mr Ewins, I conclude that you do not anticipate a reaction?"

"Not before the fall, Squire, according to my thinking; but then let folks look out for chilblains."

After this Delphic utterance, which the Yankee seer enforced by a wink of preternatural sagacity, there was nothing more to be said; so at the appointed time I repaired to the mansion of Mr Beaton.

It was that gentleman's fancy to transact all his private and railway business at his house rather than in chambers; an arrangement which gave it very much the appearance of a public office, so great was the throng that resorted thither of a morning. In