And you know nothing of him?" was said.

"Nothing, gentlemen, I do assure you. His absence is to me
altogether inexplicable."

"Where's Fenwick?" was now asked, in an imperative voice, by a new
comer.

"Not been seen this morning," replied Markland.

"Another act in this tragedy! Gone, I suppose, to join his
accomplice on the Pacific coast, and share his plunder," said the
man, passionately.

"You are using very strong language, sir!" suggested one.

"Not stronger than the case justifies. For my own assurance, I sent
out a secret agent, and I have my first letter from him this
morning. He arrived just in time to see our splendid schemes
dissolve in smoke. Lyon is a swindler, Fenwick an accomplice, and we
a parcel of easy fools. The published intelligence we have to-day is
no darker than the truth. The bubble burst by the unexpected seizure
of our lands, implements, and improvements, by the--Government. It
contained nothing but air! Fenwick and Lyon had just played one of
their reserved cards--it had something to do with the flooding of a
shaft, which would delay results, and require more capital--when the
impatient grantors of the land foreclosed every thing. From the hour
this catastrophe became certain, Lyon was no more seen. He was fully
prepared for the emergency."

In confirmation of this, letters giving the minutest particulars
were shown, thus corroborating the worst, and extinguishing the
feeblest rays of hope.

All was too true. The brilliant bubble had indeed burst, and not the
shadow of a substance remained. When satisfied of this beyond all
doubt, Markland, on whose mind suffering had produced a temporary
stupor, sought his room at the hotel, and remained there for several
days, so hopeless, weak, and undecided, that he seemed almost on the
verge of mental imbecility. How could he return home and communicate
the dreadful intelligence to his family? How could he say to them,
that, for his transgressions, they must go forth from their
beautiful Eden?

"No--no!" he exclaimed, wringing his hands in anguish. "I can never
tell them this! I can never look into their faces! Never! never!"

The moment had come, and the tempter was at his ear. There was,
first, the remote suggestion of self-banishment in some distant
land, where the rebuking presence of his injured family could never
haunt him. But he felt that a life in this world, apart from them,
would be worse than death.

"I am mocked! I am cursed