ER IX

STEPHEN WEBB

The more Browning thought of the newsboy in whom he had so strangely
recognized the son of the man whom he had so cruelly wronged, the more
uneasy he felt.

"He has evidently heard of me," he soliloquized. "His father could not
have been so near death as I supposed. He must have sent the boy or
his mother a message about that money. If it should come to his
knowledge that I am the Thomas Butler to whom his father confided ten
thousand dollars which I have failed to hand over to the family, he
may make it very disagreeable for me."

The fact that so many persons were able to identify him as Thomas
Butler made the danger more imminent.

"I must take some steps--but what?" Browning asked himself.

He kept on walking till he found himself passing the entrance of a low
poolroom. He never played pool, nor would it have suited a man of his
social position to enter such a place, but that he caught sight of a
young man, whose face and figure were familiar to him, in the act of
going into it. He quickened his pace, and laid a hand on the young
man's shoulder.

The latter turned quickly, revealing a face bearing the unmistakable
marks of dissipation.

"Uncle Thomas!" he exclaimed, apparently ill at ease.

"Yes, Stephen, it is I. Where are you going?" The young man
hesitated.

"You need not answer. I see you are wedded to your old amusements. Are
you still in the place I got for you?"

Stephen Webb looked uneasy and shamefaced.

"I have lost my place," he answered, after a pause.

"How does it happen that you lost it?"

"I don't know. Some one must have prejudiced my employer against me."

"It is your own habits that have prejudiced him, I make no doubt."

This was true. One morning Stephen, whose besetting sin was
intemperance, appeared at the office where he was employed in such a
state of intoxication that he was summarily discharged. It may be
explained that he was a son of Mr. Browning's only sister.

"When were you discharged?" asked his uncle.

"Last week."

"And have you tried to get another situation?"

"Yes."

"What are your prospects of success?"

"There seem to be very few openings just now, Uncle Thomas."

"The greater reason why you should have kept the place I obtained for
you. Were you going to play pool in this low place?"

"I was going to look on. A man must have some amusement," said
Stephen, sullenly.

"Amusement is all you think of. However, it so happens t