twelve
of us; can we not, on our individual credit, raise the sum required? I,
for one, will issue my notes to-morrow for twenty thousand dollars. If
the other directors will come forward in the same spirit, we may
exchange the bills among each other, and by endorsing them mutually,
get them through the various banks where we have friends or influence,
and thus save the institution. Gentlemen, are you prepared to meet me
in this thing?"

Two or three responded affirmatively. Some positively declined; and
others wanted time to think of it.

"If we pause to think, all is ruined," said Mr. Lawrence, excited. "We
must act at once, and promptly."

But each member of the board remained firm to the first expression.
Nothing could be forced, and reflection only tended to confirm those
who opposed the president's views in their opposition to the plan
suggested. The meeting closed, after two hours' perplexing
deliberation, without determining upon any course of action. At ten
o'clock on the next day the directors were to meet again.

Mr. Lawrence walked the floor for half of that night, and lay awake for
the other half. To sleep was impossible. Thus far, in the many
difficulties he had encountered, a way of escape from them had opened
either on the right hand or on the left, but now no way of escape
presented itself. A hundred plans were suggested to his mind, canvassed
and then put aside. He saw but one measure of relief, if it could be
carried out; but that he had proposed already, and it was not approved.

The unhappy state in which she saw her husband deeply distressed Mrs.
Lawrence. Earnestly did she beg of him to tell her all that troubled
him, and let her bear a part of the burden that was upon him. At first
he evaded her questions; but, to her oft-repeated and tenderly urged
petition to be a sharer in his pains as well as his pleasures, he
mentioned the desperate state of affairs in the company of which he was
president.

"But, my dear husband," she replied to this, "you cannot be held
responsible for the losses the institution has sustained."

"True, Florence; but the odium, the censure, the distress that must
follow its failure,--I cannot bear to think of these. My credit, too,
will suffer, for I shall lose all I have invested in the stock, and
this fact, when known, will impair confidence."

"All this is painful and deeply to be regretted, Sidney," said the
wife, speaking in as firm a voice as she could assu