agnanimity by
repeating his offer. If the doubt that follows a self-devoted
action--the question whether it was not after all a needless folly--is
mixed, as it was in Lapham's case, with the vague belief that we might
have done ourselves a good turn without great risk of hurting any one
else by being a little less unselfish, it becomes a regret that is hard
to bear. Since Corey spoke to him, some things had happened that gave
Lapham hope again.

"I'm going to tell her about it," said his wife, and she showed herself
impatient to make up for the time she had lost. "Why didn't you tell
me before, Silas?"

"I didn't know we were on speaking terms before," said Lapham sadly.

"Yes, that's true," she admitted, with a conscious flush. "I hope he
won't think Pen's known about it all this while."

XXIV.

THAT evening James Bellingham came to see Corey after dinner, and went
to find him in his own room.

"I've come at the instance of Colonel Lapham," said the uncle. "He was
at my office to-day, and I had a long talk with him. Did you know that
he was in difficulties?"

"I fancied that he was in some sort of trouble. And I had the
book-keeper's conjectures--he doesn't really know much about it."

"Well, he thinks it time--on all accounts--that you should know how he
stands, and why he declined that proposition of yours. I must say he
has behaved very well--like a gentleman."

"I'm not surprised."

"I am. It's hard to behave like a gentleman where your interest is
vitally concerned. And Lapham doesn't strike me as a man who's in the
habit of acting from the best in him always."

"Do any of us?" asked Corey.

"Not all of us, at any rate," said Bellingham. "It must have cost him
something to say no to you, for he's just in that state when he
believes that this or that chance, however small, would save him."

Corey was silent. "Is he really in such a bad way?"

"It's hard to tell just where he stands. I suspect that a hopeful
temperament and fondness for round numbers have always caused him to
set his figures beyond his actual worth. I don't say that he's been
dishonest about it, but he's had a loose way of estimating his assets;
he's reckoned his wealth on the basis of his capital, and some of his
capital is borrowed. He's lost heavily by some of the recent failures,
and there's been a terrible shrinkage in his values. I don't mean
merely in the stock of paint on hand, but in a kind of competi