en surprised that I, your enemy by
every cause of enmity that one man can have against another, should
write to you so fully about the secrets of my early life? I have done
so, because I wish the strife between us to be an open strife on my
side; because I desire that you should know thoroughly what you have
to expect from my character, after such a life as I have led. There
was purpose in my deceit, when I deceived you--there is purpose in my
frankness, when I now tell you all."

*****

"I began in Mr. Sherwin's employment, as the lowest clerk in his office.
Both the master and the men looked a little suspiciously on me, at
first. My account of myself was always the same--simple and credible;
I had entered the counting-house with the best possible recommendation,
and I acted up to it. These circumstances in my favour, joined to a
manner that never varied, and to a steadiness at my work that never
relaxed, soon produced their effect--all curiosity about me gradually
died away: I was left to pursue my avocations in peace. The friend who
had got me my situation, preserved my secret as I had desired him; of
all the people whom I had formerly known, pitiless enemies and lukewarm
adherents, not one ever suspected that my hiding-place was the back
office of a linen-draper's shop. For the first time in my life, I felt
that the secret of my father's misfortune was mine, and mine only; that
my security from exposure was at length complete.

"Before long, I rose to the chief place in the counting-house. It was no
very difficult matter for me to discover, that my new master's character
had other elements besides that of the highest respectability. In plain
terms, I found him to be a pretty equal compound by nature, of the fool,
the tyrant, and the coward. There was only one direction in which what
grovelling sympathies he had, could be touched to some purpose. Save
him waste, or get him profit; and he was really grateful. I succeeded
in working both these marvels. His managing man cheated him; I found
it out; refused to be bribed to collusion; and exposed the fraud to Mr.
Sherwin. This got me his confidence, and the place of chief clerk. In
that position, I discovered a means, which had never occurred to my
employer, of greatly enlarging his business and its profits, with the
least possible risk. He tried my plan, and it succeeded. This gained me
his warmest admiration, an increase of salary, and a firm