A sad and disheartening result! And what added to the pain of Eldridge was the fact, that he should have been so weak and short-sighted as to permit himself to be thus duped and cheated.
"I knew how it would be," said Mr. Hueston, coolly, when he was told that Eldridge was in difficulties. "Nothing else was to have been expected."
"Why so?" inquired the person to whom the remark was made.
"Everybody knows Dalton to be a sharper. Eldridge is not his first victim."
"I did not know it."
"I did, then, and prophesied just this result."
"You?"
"Yes, certainly I did. I knew exactly how it must turn out. And here's the end, as I predicted."
This was said with great self-complacency.
Soon after the conversation, a young man, named Williams, who had only a year before married the daughter of Mr. Hueston, came into his store with a look of trouble on his countenance. His business was that of an exchange-broker, and in conducting it he was using the credit of his father-in-law quite liberally.
"What's the matter?" inquired Mr. Hueston, seeing, by the expression 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, originally, of his own, the money would have to come out of his pocket. The ruin of which the young man talked was more in his imagination than anywhere else, as Mr. Hueston was able enough to sustain him in his difficulty.
In the winding up of the affairs of Eldridge, who stopped payment on the day Williams announced to his father-in-law the fact that he held his notes, every thing turned out as badly as Mr. Hueston had predicted. The unhappy young man was almost beside himself with trouble, mortification, and disappointment. Not only had he lost every thing he possessed in the world; he was deeply involved in debt besides, and his good name was gone. A marriage contract, into which he had entered, was broken off in consequence; the father of the lady demanding of him a release of the engagement in a way so insulting, that the young man flung insult back into his teeth, and never after went near his house.
For months after the disastrous termination of his business, Eldridge lingered about the city in a miserable state of mind. Some friends obtained for him a situation as clerk, but he did not keep the place very long; it seemed almost impossible for him to fix his attention upon any thing. This neglect of the interests of his employer was so apparent, that he was dismissed from his place at the end of a few months. This increased the morbid despondency under which he was labouring, and led to an almost total abandonment of himself. In less than a year, he was travelling swiftly along the road to utter ruin.
One day, it was just twelve months from the time of Eldridge's failure, Mr. Hueston stood conversing with a gentleman, when the unhappy young man went reeling by, so much intoxicated that he with difficulty kept his feet.
"Poor fellow!" said the gentleman, in a tone of pity. "He was badly dealt by."
"There is no doubt of that," returned Mr. Hueston. "Dalton managed his cards with his usual skill. But I knew how it would be from the first. I knew that Dalton was a knave at heart, and would overreach him."
"You did?" was rejoined, with a look and tone of surprise.
"Oh, yes. I predicted, from the beginning, the very result that has come out."
"You warned the young man, of course?" inquired the gentleman.
"No."
"What! Saw him in the hands of a sharper, and gave him no warning?"
"I never meddle in other people's affairs. I find as much as I can do to take proper care of my own."
"And yet, if common report is true, had you taken a little care of this young man, you would have saved six or seven thousand dollars for yourself."
"That's my look-out," said Mr. Hueston.
"You knew how it would be," resumed the gentleman, in a severe, rebuking voice, "and yet kept silence, permitting an honest, confiding young man to fall into the clutches of a scoundrel. Mr. Hueston, society holds you responsible for the ruin of one of its members, equally responsible with the knave who was the agent of the ruin. A word would have saved the young man; but, in your indifference and disregard of others' good, you would not speak that word. When next you see the miserable wreck of a human being that but just now went staggering past, remember the work of your own hands is before you."
And saying this, the man turned abruptly away, leaving Mr. Hueston so much astonished and bewildered by the unexpected charge, as scarcely to comprehend where he was. Recovering himself in a moment or two, he walked slowly along, his eyes upon the ground, with what feelings the reader may imagine.
A few days afterwards, his son-in-law, at his instance, went in search of Eldridge for the purpose of offering him assistance, and making an effort to reclaim him. But, alas! he was too late; death had finished the work of ruin.
JACOB JONES;
OR, THE MAN WHO COULDN'T GET ALONG IN THE WORLD
JACOB JONES was clerk in a commission store at a salary of five hundred dollars a year. He was just twenty-two, and had been receiving his salary for two years. Jacob had no one to care for but himself; but, somehow or other, it happened