lustrated."

"Perhaps _they_ are our moralists," Corey suggested.

"Perhaps," Sewell assented.

"By the way, Hilary," said Bellingham, "did you ever know who wrote that
article in the _Abstract_, when Northwick's crookedness first appeared?"

"Yes," said Hilary. "It was a young fellow of twenty-four or five."

"Come off!" said Bellingham, in a slang phrase then making its way into
merited favor. "What's become of him? I haven't seen anything else like
it in the _Abstract_."

"No, and I'm afraid you're not likely to. The fellow was a reporter on
the paper at the time; but he happened to have looked up the literature
of defalcation, and they let him say his say."

"It was a very good say."

"Better than any other he had in him. They let him try again on
different things, but he wasn't up to the work. So the managing editor
said--and he was a friend of the fellow's. He was too literary, I
believe."

"And what's become of him?" asked Corey.

"You might get _him_ to read to you," said Bellingham to the old man. He
added to the company, "Corey uses up a fresh reader every three months.
He takes them into his intimacy, and then he finds their society
oppressive."

"Why," Hilary answered with a little hesitation, "he was out of health,
and Matt had him up to his farm."

"Is he Matt's only beneficiary?" Corey asked, with a certain tone of
tolerant liking for Matt. "I thought he usually had a larger colony at
Vardley."

"Well, he has," said Hilary. "But when his mother and sister are
visiting him, he has to reduce their numbers. He can't very well turn
his family away."

"He might board them out," said Bellingham.

"Do you suppose," asked Sewell, as if he had not noticed the turn the
talk had taken, "that Northwick has gone to Europe?"

"I've no doubt he wishes me to suppose so," said Hilary, "and of course
we've had to cable the authorities to look out for him at Moville and
Liverpool, but I feel perfectly sure he's still in Canada, and expects
to make terms for getting home again. He must be horribly homesick."

"Yes?" Sewell suggested.

"Yes. Not because he's a man of any delicacy of feeling, or much real
affection for his family. I've no doubt he's fond of them, in a way, but
he's fonder of himself. You can see, all through his letter, that he's
trying to make interest for himself, and that he's quite willing to use
his children if it will tell on the public sympathies. He knows very
well that they're