"It is hopelessly gone," said John, "and all my year's earnings with it!" He threw his pipe from him with such force that it was broken into a hundred pieces, and, as if relieved by the action, added, more calmly, "Beckman's bank has failed. Why don't you say, 'I told you so'?" he added, bitterly.
Letty was one of those peculiarly constituted persons with whom there is no medium between entire calmness and extreme agitation. She was aware of this; and it had given her a habit of self-control, and of enduring in silence any sudden blow or discomfort. This peculiarity had its disadvantages, and more than once had she been called sullen or cross, for going about with compressed lips when her heart was overwhelmed with grief or with a sense of injury. At present she sat quite still, with her eyes fixed on the western sky, for some minutes.
"Are you sure? Who told you?" she asked, presently.
"Of course I am sure. Should I bring you such a piece of news if I were not sure?" asked John, in a tone of irritation. "It is all over town. His office is shut; and they say he has run off."
"Well," said Letty, after another interval of silence, "if it is gone, it is gone; that is all. It might have been worse: there is that about it."
"I don't see how."
"You might have deposited all the money, instead of using part of it to pay our debt. What is in the house is safe. You acted for the best, and that is all any one can do."
"That is what cuts me to the heart, I did not act for the best. I knew all the time that there was a risk in it; but I was so greedy after the few additional dollars of interest that I would not consider it. Mr. Trescott advised me against it, too. He said he did not believe Beckman understood his business. But no:—I must have the last penny; and now I have lost your money as well as my own. If it had been only mine, I would not care; but to rob you—"
"Well, then, John, we will at least get a lesson out of the trouble," said Letty, trying to speak cheerfully. "Perhaps we have both been growing too fond of money,—too careful for the things of this world. 'Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' you know," she added, in a lower tone; "and, after all, he has left us far more than he has taken away. We can never be very poor so long as we have each other."
John took her hand and kissed it; and Letty nestled close to his side. They were still sitting in silence, when Mrs. De Witt came through the garden-gate, her eyes red with crying. Mrs. De Witt was one of those who cry easily and find great comfort in it.