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with worthless bank-notes, and he who dupes unsuspecting persons with counterfeit money. The discipline of the Penitentiary, which is awarded to the one, is needed fully as much by the other. He who, in the employ of a merchant, appropriates his master's money, meets with disgrace and a prison. The cashier of a bank who applies money entrusted to him by a confiding public, to his own uses, should be made to suffer in like measure."

"You are severe," I said, and looked at his firm mouth and the stern expression his face wore, with a feeling of the tenderest pity for Mildred. It did not seem to me likely that he would connect himself with a family he considered banned and disgraced.

"Not more severe than is needful," he returned. "Fraudulent bankruptcy, of companies instituted by government, should be punished with great rigor. Their insolvency involves a breach of faith to the public, especially when there is a disposal of the funds in a way prohibited by the laws. It is a grievous thing to think that our laws can be broken with impunity, or that the rights

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DRIVE TO THE CITY.

of property are so illy secured or weakly protected, that they may be invaded and destroyed without redress or punishment.

"It was a long time," he went on, “before I realized the extent of the crime committed, or the wrong done. We, as a people, are accustomed to the failure of banks. In many cases the misfortune has been the result of bad calculations and bad investments. The insolvency of the Talbot Bank, however, was a clearly designed fraud, and brings disgrace upon the community where it was committed. Do not think that a city where crime of this nature has been carried on, will escape. No! Already the tidings of its shame have gone abroad on the wings of the wind to the cities and towns of the States, and it is judged. Are we respected? Are we held worthy of being ranked among honorable communities, when we allow that which should be signally punished to be passed over? Assuredly not. People in the West and in the South speak of us with a deserved scorn. Our disgrace cannot be readily or soon forgotten."

"I have never viewed the subject thus," I

said, "but I cannot but agree with you. The guilty do not so easily escape punishment in the New England towns and cities. Wealth there does not so well screen ill-doers."

Mr. Poinsett fell

and I arose to go.

into a thoughtful silence

He conducted me to the

carriage and held out his hand at parting. "Mildred is very much attached to you, Miss Wilmerton," he said. "Help her, as the dreary night closes about her, to endure patiently and meekly the darkness and the chill, until the Sun shall arise and shine."

I did not need to be told to manifest a sympathy for Mildred, but I liked him the better for his thought of her.

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I

MRS. BROWNING.

HAVE said that Mr. Forrester re

garded his eldest son and daughter

with a boundless affection, to which was added for Walworth an increasing respect. Despite the want of sympathy between them, and the rare intercourse they had together, Mr. Forrester's pride in Walworth was very great. He took a delight in his mere presence in the house, and in seeing him surrounded by polished and learned men, with whom the drawing-room at Glen-Beck was often filled, and to many of whom Mr. Forrester himself

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He was a person who

was totally unknown. had few attachments, but when he once gave of his affection, it was in no stinted measure; and I could not but feel the deepest sorrow for this man, when a blow came for which he was ill prepared.

One day as I sat reading in the library, father and son entered. Mr. Forrester approached the table at which I sat, and counted out some bank-notes which he pushed towards. Walworth. Immediately after, summoned by Mrs. Forrester, he left the apartment. Walworth did not take the money from the table, but stationed himself near one of the windows and looked gloomily out. I continued my reading; for Walworth's moods were not unknown to me, and I had of late acquired a habit of leaving him alone unless he addressed me, for the restless dissatisfaction in his face was more apparent than ever. At length he moved slowly towards the table; I raised my eyes from the book and observed him. There was a dark, scornful expression in his countenance, a determined compression of the lip, that gave me pain to mark.

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