victim of tuberculosis, he lingered a year to taste
the bitterness of poverty and wretchedness. Then he died, and suffered
the usual eulogy poured out by country ministers.

A charitable author must admit the virtues of his "heavy-villain." The
sun rises upon the evil and the good, and rain descends upon the just
and the unjust, for the simple reason, no doubt, that no other
arrangement would be possible, inasmuch as there are no people who are
entirely good and none who are wholly bad. In every man the forces of
good and evil are at war.

If Henry Francis yielded to temptation there were extenuating
circumstances. In the first place, Robert Palmer's will distinctly
stated that everything was left to the judgment of the executors. They
were to stand firm and resolute on their own judgment "and take time to
settle the concern whether it need one year or twenty years."

Possibly Francis reasoned that investing the old man's money in a
certain way would, within a very few years, double the estate, and thus
render a service to the heirs. And if at the end of three or four years
the event had proved the soundness of his judgment, was it wrong to
exercise that judgment in further ventures? The will gave him twenty
years. Weren't the executors acting "at all times and under all
circumstances to the best of their judgment?" If conscience demurred
that Hintzen and Haggerty were left in the dark, so that "their
judgment" had come to mean simply the judgment of Henry Francis, had he
not proved that judgment good?

He knew that when he had given the heirs to understand that there was no
property, he had prevaricated. But had he not heard their pleas with
patience, just as the old man had directed? And if Robert Palmer's
estate were settled right then, at the end of four years, would the
heirs complain of circumstances which had doubled their inheritance? No
doubt conscience inquired if Francis was thinking of postponing
settlement indefinitely. And no doubt prudence suggested a settlement
now when all was going well. But once let the estate slip from his
control, and he would become a comparatively poor man; while the
twenty-nine heirs might squander their money foolishly.

While he was debating the question, it was only proper to keep the money
well invested. And if at the end of the fifth year his securities had
shrunken seriously in value, it was natural to wait another year for
values to become normal. When the crash came,