“I am a ruined man!” said Mr. Draper to Howard; “I have robbed you, and beggared my child; but one resource remains to me;”—and he looked around with the desperation of insanity.
Howard grasped his hand. “My dear brother,” said he, “your wife, with an almost
prophetic spirit, foresaw this hour. ‘Comfort him,’ said she, ‘when it arrives, and lead his mind to higher objects.’ Your child has an ample provision, by the sum settled on her mother. I have lost property which I did not use, and, with the blessing of God, may never want. Come home with me; I have means for us both. You will have all the indulgences you ever coveted. No one has led a harder life than you have. You have labored like the galley-slave, without wages; come, and learn that, beyond what we can use for our own or others’ benefit, wealth has only an imaginary value.”
Perhaps it was an additional mortification to Mr. Draper, to find that, a few days after his failure, the banks concluded to issue no specie. Many were kept along by this resolution; while others stopped, with the conviction, that, had they been contented with moderate gains, they might, in this day of trouble and perplexity, have been rich enough.
finis