through his peculations.

Again the question of taking Claire once more into his employment came
up in the mind of Jasper. After viewing it on every side, the decision
was adverse. He felt that too great a risk was involved. And so he
employed one in whom he could confide with less certainty.

Several years had now passed since the merchant began to feel the
shock of adverse winds. All before was a summer sea, and the ship of
his fortune had bent her sails alone to favouring breezes. But this
was to be no longer. His ship had suffered not only by stress of
weather, but also by the sacrifice of a portion of cargo to save what
remained. And, at last, she was driving on toward the breakers, and
her safety from destruction only hoped for through the activity,
skill, and tireless vigilance of her helmsman.

A few years before, Mr. Jasper considered himself worth between two
and three hundred thousand dollars; now, he passed sleepless nights in
fear of impending ruin. He had trusted in riches; he had called them,
in his heart, the greatest good. At his word they had poured in upon
him from all sides, until he was half bewildered at sight of the
glittering treasures; but, just as he began to feel secure in his
possessions, they began to take themselves wings and fly away.

And, alas for him! he had laid up no other treasures. None in heaven;
none in the hearts of his wife and children; none in his own mind. The
staff upon which he had leaned was now a splintering reed, wounding as
it bent under him.

CHAPTER XIX.

There was one point of time to which Leonard Jasper looked with no
little anxiety, and that was to the period of Fanny Elder's majority,
when it was his purpose to relinquish his guardianship, and wash his
hands, if it were possible to do so, entirely clean of her. Until the
estate left by her father was settled up, the property in her hands
and receipts in his, there was danger ahead. And, as the time drew
nearer and nearer, he felt increasing uneasiness.

On the very day that Fanny reached her eighteenth year, Jasper sent a
note to Claire, asking an interview.

"I wish," said he, when the latter came, "to have some conference with
you about Miss Elder. She has now, you are no doubt aware, attained
the legal age. Such being the case, I wish, as early as it can be
done, to settle up the estate of her father, and pay over to her, or
to any person she may select as her agent, the property in my hands.