ression of
the young man's face, that something was wrong.

"Have you heard any thing about Eldridge?" inquired Williams, in an
anxious voice.

"Yes, I understand that he is about making a failure of it; and, if so,
it will be a bad one. But what has that to do with your affairs?"

"If he fails, I am ruined," replied the young man, becoming greatly
excited.

"You?" It was now Mr. Hueston's turn to exhibit a disturbed aspect.

"I hold seven thousand dollars of his paper."

"Seven thousand dollars!"

"Yes."

"How in the name of wonder did it come into your possession?"

"I took it from Dalton at a tempting discount."

"From Dalton! Then his name is on the paper?"

"No, I hold it without recourse."

"What folly! How could you have done such a thing?"

"I believed Eldridge to be perfectly good. Dalton said that he was in
the way of making a fortune."

"Why, then, was he anxious to part with his paper without recourse?"

"It was, he alleged, on account of ill-health. He wished to close up
all his business and make an investment of what little he possessed
previous to going south, in the hope that a change of air would brace
up his shattered constitution."

"It was all a lie--the scoundrel! His health is as good as mine. A
greater villain than he is does not walk the earth. I wonder how you
could have been so duped."

"How do you think Eldridge's affairs will turn out?" asked the young
man.

"Worse than nothing, I suppose. I understand that he paid Dalton some
eighteen thousand dollars for his half of the business. There was but
ten thousand dollars capital at first; and, from the way things were
conducted, instead of its increasing, it must have diminished yearly."

Here was an entirely new aspect in the case. Mr. Hueston's
self-complacency was gone; he knew how it would be with Eldridge from
the first, but he didn't know how it was going to be with himself. He
didn't for a moment dream that when the fabric of the young man's
fortune came falling around him, that any thing belonging to him would
be buried under the ruins.

"Too bad! too bad!" he ejaculated, as, under a sense of the utter
desperation of the case, he struck his hands together, and then threw
them above his head. But it did no good to fret and scold, and blame
his son-in-law; the error had been committed, and it was now too late
to retrace a step. Six or seven thousand dollars would inevitably be
lost; and, as Williams had no capital,