n was the only means at his disposal for doing
so. A strain, too, of Puritan piety was bound up in the constitution of
his soul, and in private life he exercised high morality, and was also
kind and charitable. He belonged to guilds and societies that had as
their object the improvement and moral advancement of young men. He was a
liberal patron of educational schemes, he sang a fervent and fruity tenor
in the choir of St. Agnes, he was a regular communicant, his nature
looked toward good, and turned its eyes away from evil. To do him justice
he was not a hypocrite, though, if all about him were known, and a
plebiscite taken, it is probable that he would be unanimously condemned.
Yet the universal opinion would be wrong: he was no hypocrite, but only
had the bump of self-preservation enormously developed. He had cheated
and swindled, but he was genuinely opposed to cheating and swindling. He
was cheating and swindling now, in buying the option of Boston Copper.
But he did not know that: he wanted to repair the original wrong, to hand
back to Morris his fortune unimpaired, and also to save himself. But of
these two wants, the second, it must be confessed, was infinitely the
stronger. To save himself there was perhaps nothing that he would stick
at. However, it was his constant wish and prayer that he might not be led
into temptation. He knew well what his particular temptation was, namely
this instinct of self-preservation, and constantly thought and meditated
about it. He knew that he was hardly himself when the stress of it came
on him; it was like a possession.

Mills, though an excellent partner and a man of most industrious habits,
had, so Mr. Taynton would have admitted, one little weak spot. He never
was at the office till rather late in the morning. True, when he came, he
soon made up for lost time, for he was possessed, as we have seen, of a
notable quickness and agility of mind, but sometimes Taynton found that
he was himself forced to be idle till Mills turned up, if his signature
or what not was required for papers before work could be further
proceeded with. This, in fact, was the case next morning, and from half
past eleven Mr. Taynton had to sit idly in his office, as far as the work
of the firm was concerned until his partner arrived. It was a little
tiresome that this should happen to-day, because there was nothing else
that need detain him, except those deeds for the execution of which his
partner's sign