n ordinary esteem: it was true
and devoted friendship. Their confidence in him was so great, that they
would have laughed in the face of any one who should have come and told
them, 'Malgat is a thief!'

"Such he was, when, that morning, he was standing near his safe, and saw
a gentleman come to his window who had just cashed a check drawn by
the Central Bank of Philadelphia upon the Mutual Discount Bank. This
gentleman, who was M. Elgin, spoke such imperfect French, that Malgat
asked him, for convenience sake, to step inside the railing. He came in,
and behind him Sarah Brandon.

"How can I describe to you the sensations of the poor cashier as he
beheld this amazing beauty! He could hardly stammer out a few incoherent
words; and the gentleman and the young lady had long since left, when
he was still lost in a kind of idiotic delight. He had been overtaken by
one of those overwhelming passions which sometimes felled to the ground
the strongest and simplest of men at the age of forty.

"Alas! Sarah had but too keenly noticed the impression she had produced.
To be sure, Malgat was very far from that ideal of a millionaire husband
of whom these adventurers dreamed; but, after all, he held the keys of
a safe in which lay millions. One might always get something out of him
wherewith to wait for better things to come. Their plan was soon formed.

"The very next day M. Elgin presented himself alone at the office to ask
for some information. He returned three days after with another draft.
By the end of the week, he had furnished Malgat with an opportunity to
render him some trifling service. Thus relations began to exist
between them; and, at the end of a fortnight, Sir Thorn could, with all
propriety, ask the cashier to dine with him in Circus Street. A voice
from within--one of those presentiments to which we ought always to
listen--warned Malgat not to accept the invitation; but he was already
no longer his own master.

"He went to dinner in Circus Street, and he left it madly in love.

"He had felt as if Sarah Brandon's eyes had been all the time upon
him,--those strange, sublimely beautiful eyes, which upset our very
being within us, weakening the most powerful energy, troubling the
senses, and leading reason astray--eyes which dazzle, enchant, and
bewitch.

"The commonest politeness required that Malgat should call upon Mrs.
Brian and M. Elgin. This call was followed by many others. A man less
blinded by passion m