“Yes. There are your fifty dollars, and if you will take a friend’s advice, you will never make another bet with strangers.”
“I don’t think I ever shall,” said Whitney, pocketing his recovered cash. “You have read me the best lesson I ever received. Do you know, it had been running in my head all the morning that I fell among thieves last night? Curious, wasn’t it? Why, I have several times been on the point of starting for the police headquarters. That burglar-proof arrangement of Robinson’s is a fine thing, I’ll warrant. I guess it wasn’t locked when we opened it the first time. I should like to go down to his store and see how it looks on his safe, but I have just received a telegram asking me to come immediately, for my mother is very ill, so I must be off by the first train. I could not have gone through, if you had not been good enough to return my money. Let’s go and take something.”
“No, sir; nothing for me,” said Guy.
“A cigar, then?”
“No, I am obliged to you. Good-day. Thank goodness that job is done,” said Guy, as he left the hotel, “and I am glad to get through with it so easily. Suppose Whitney had given the police a description of Jones and myself, and had us arrested. Whew! I’ll not run another such a risk.”
Guy made good use of his time, and by twelve o’clock he had called upon every one of his creditors and paid all his debts in full. The invitations to drink and smoke which he received were almost as numerous as the places he visited, but he firmly declined every one of them. He carried home with him a much lighter heart than he had brought away. He went straight to Mrs. Willis with the story of Mr. Walker’s kindness, and had she been his own mother—as Guy wished from the bottom of his heart she was—she could not have been more delighted with the turn affairs had taken.
That day proved most emphatically to be the turning point of Guy’s life. His choice had been made for all time. His subsequent career showed that Mrs. Willis had not been mistaken in her estimate of his character. His stability and fixedness of purpose surpassed her expectations. Never once did he forget his promise. And his performance in well-doing met with its reward. Long before he had time to repay the money advanced him by Mr. Walker, that gentleman promoted him to the position of assistant book-keeper, and Guy never gave him reason to regret the step.
Will Jones and his brother terminated their connection with the store on the very day Guy held his memorable interview with Mr. Walker. The former was discharged, and a dispatch sent after the commercial traveler commanding his immediate return to St. Louis; but Mr. Jones, scenting danger from afar, did not see fit to obey. Guy never heard of him afterward.
The scenes in the life of Guy Harris which I have attempted to describe in this story were enacted more than twelve years ago, and Guy has now become a man. Strict regard for truth compels me to say that he is neither a governor nor a member of the legislature; but he is a prosperous man and a happy one, and in the city in which he has taken up his abode there are none who are held in higher esteem than he.
Now and then he visits his father at Norwall, but he does it from a sense of duty and not for pleasure, for his old home has no more attractions for him now than it had in the days of his boyhood. Between him and his relatives there is a great gulf fixed which they can all see, and which they know can never be bridged over. Mr. Harris is painfully conscious of the fact, and would willingly give every cent of his possessions to have it otherwise, but it is too late. “It might have been,” but the favored hour has gone by. Guy’s affections were long ago alienated. There are two people in the world, however, upon whom he bestows all the love of his ardent nature, and they are Mrs. Willis and Mr. Walker. If there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, are there not rich blessings laid up in store for those who lead that sinner to repentance?