e him with you, and
hope your esteem for him will improve on acquaintance. He will take a
schedule of everything, and anything missing thereafter you will be held
responsible for." Thus saying, the gentleman bid Chapman a polite good
morning, and hurried himself out of the house.

Again the hall bell rang. This time Bowles brought in an unsealed note,
grimy and discolored. Chapman immediately recognized it as from Gusher.
He carried it up stairs to his dear wife, who read it aloud, for it was
addressed to her, and read thus:

"Pardon, madam, pardon. Zis one circumstance, he is so very
disagreeable. My compliment to ze family, an Mr. Gusher, he beg
to say as he shall be compel to forego ze pleasure of is
marriage zis day wiz your daughter. He is one grand rascal what
make me so much trouble. So many friend come to see me to-day.
But ze suberscribed condition of my accommodation shall prevent
ze carry out of my obligation wiz your lovely daughter. You
shall zee, madam, as I am a man--yes, madam, a gentleman of
'onar. I shall get all my enemies undar my feet. Zen I shall do
myself ze 'onar to marry your lovely daughter. Allow me, madam.
I shall subscribe myself your friend.

"PHILO GUSHER."

"Impudence to the very last," said Mrs. Chapman; "he has brought this
disgrace upon us, and now insults us in this way." When Chapman returned
he found the parlor doors locked, and was informed by the sheriff's
deputy that he must confine himself to the kitchen and one room up
stairs.

CHAPTER XXXI.

A VERY PERPLEXING SITUATION.

Wall Street was in a great flutter that day. A forgery, a defalcation
that to-day would cause but a ripple on the surface, would have at that
day sent the street into a tempest of excitement. A sheriff's deputy
stood at the door of the office of the great Kidd Discovery Company, and
a crowd of anxious and excited people, who had invested their money and
now found they had lost it all, and had been made the victims of an
aggravating fraud, surrounded the building. Threats and imprecations,
enough to have sent a much more respectable house to the bottom of the
sea, were heaped on the firm of Topman & Gusher. Nor indeed would it
have been safe for any one connected with that enterprising firm to have
shown his head in that assembly just at that time.

"Gentlemen will understand that this consolidated establishment is in a
very unconsol