ks and
bolts are made for honest men, not for thieves, so the moral law and its
penalties are for those who have never openly sinned.

If Mr. Bullion had been ten times the Shylock he was, he could not have
disregarded the last injunction of Fletcher. The turn in the market
enabled him to make advantageous sales of his stocks, and in less than
a week he resumed payment. The first thing he did was to pay over to
trustees the notes he had given Fletcher, thereby securing the widow at
least a decent support. He also sent Danforth & Co. the ten thousand
dollars for which their clerk had paid such a terrible forfeiture.
After discharging all his obligations, there was still an ample margin
left,--a large fortune, in fact. Mr. Bullion could now retire with
comfort,--could look forward to many years; so he flattered himself.
His will was made, his children provided for; and some unsettled
accounts, not remembered by any save himself and the recording angel,
were adjusted as well as the lapse of time would allow. So he thought of
purchasing a country-house for the next season, and of giving the rest
of his days to the enjoyment of life.

But it was not so to be. A swift and sudden stroke smote him down. In
the dead of night, and alone, he met the angel for whose summons all of
us are waiting, and went his way without a struggle. The morning sun,
as its rays shot in between the blinds, lighted the seamed and careworn
face of an old man, resting as in a serene, dreamless sleep.

* * * * *

Mr. Tonsor found, on consulting the best legal authorities, that he
could not maintain his claim upon the notes he had received of Sandford;
and, rather than subject himself to the expense of a lawsuit in which he
was certain to be beaten, he relinquished them to Monroe, and filed his
claim for the money against Sandford's estate. Ten _per cent._ was the
amount of the dividend he received; the remainder was charged to Profit
and Loss,--Experience being duly credited with the same amount.

* * * * *

It was with the greatest difficulty that the judicious Easelmann
prevented his friend from making a second visit in the evening of the
same day. Greenleaf had come to a full conviction, in his own mind, that
his difference with Alice ought to be settled, and he could not conceive
that it might take time to bring her to the same conclusion. Some people
adapt themselves to circumstanc