ree silver goblets which stood on the
_beaufait_. And poor, collapsed Flint! he could only bid the officers go,
with a wave of his hand.

They were alone.

The sailor, with a scornful curl in his lip, stood by the chair of the
merchant, whose dejected countenance, taken in connection with his white
cravat, was delightfully comical.

"Flint," commenced the man, "your verdancy is refreshing. Your sweet and
child-like simplicity is like a draught of your old wine--it's rare, it's
rare."

If anything touched Flint, it was sarcasm. He stood in dread of ridicule,
as most men do whose foibles and vices deserve lashing.

"Edward Walters!" he cried, springing to his feet, "you have outwitted me.
Well, you are a knave; it is your pride to be one. Your companions will
shout to-night, in some obscure den of this city, as you tell them of your
ingenuity, and you will be a hero among----"

"Stop, John Flint! For sixteen years to-night my life has been as pure as a
child's. The vices of passion and avarice have not touched me. I have borne
a sorrow in my heart which shrunk instinctively from sin. During these
years I have been poor, very poor." The man paused. "There is a link lost
somewhere in my life--was I an age in a madhouse? Let it go. I have loved
my fellow-man; I have lingered at the hammock of a sick mess-mate, and
closed his eyes kindly when he died; I have spoken words of cheer when my
heart was bitterness. I do not say this boastfully, for God's eyes are
upon us all. I have done these things to atone for the one great sin of my
life, which has stalked through memory like a plague. John Flint, I have
had the misfortune to know you for twenty years, and during that time you
never have, to my knowledge, performed a single act worthy of being
remembered. You have a narrow, malicious mind; you have been tyrannical
when you should have been generous; you have been the devil's emissary
under the cant of religion. You call Jesus master, but you crucify him
daily! There is your photograph, John Flint!"

"You flatter me," remarked that personage, sarcastically; "but go on."

"It is seldom that a rich man has the truth spoken to him plainly--the poor
man hears it often enough. Consider yourself favored. You have called me a
knave. I will draw some pictures, and I wish you to look at them:

"Many years ago, a seafaring man who had just lost his ship in which his
little fortune had been invested, returned to this city sick at