During the five or six following years, a number of events occurred
bearing more or less seriously upon some of the actors in our story.
With Edward Claire and his family, life had flowed on in an even
current; and, but for the fact that his health never fairly recovered
from the shock it received in consequence of his having taxed his
physical system beyond its capability of endurance, the sunshine would
never have been a moment from his threshold.
The important addition made to his income through the new arrangement
volunteered by Fanny's guardian, gave to his external condition a more
favourable aspect. He was no longer troubled about the ways and means
of providing for his needful expenses. A much better situation, so far
as a higher salary was concerned, had, during this time offered; but,
as it required an amount of confinement and labour which he could not
give, without endangering his health, he wisely declined the offer.
Far less smoothly had the current of Leonard Jasper's life flowed
on. Twice during this period had he received visits from his old
acquaintance, Martin, and each time he was made poorer by five
thousand dollars. It was all in vain that he struggled and resisted.
The man had no compassion in him. He cared not who suffered loss, so
he was the gainer.
There were other miners at work sapping the foundations of Jasper's
fortune, besides this less concealed operator. Parker, the young man
who succeeded to the place of Claire, and who was afterward raised to
the condition of partner, with a limited interest, was far from
being satisfied with his dividend in the business. The great bulk of
Jasper's means were used in outside speculations; and as the result of
these became successively known to Parker, his thoughts began to run
in a new channel. "If I only had money to go into this," and, "If I
only had money to go into that," were words frequently on his tongue.
He regarded himself as exceedingly shrewd; and confidently believed
that, if he had capital to work with, he could soon amass an
independent fortune.
"Money makes money," was his favourite motto.
Unscrupulous as his partner, it is not surprising that Parker, ere
long, felt himself perfectly authorized to use the credit of the house
in private schemes of profit. To do this safely, it was necessary to
have a friend outside of the firm. Such a friend he did not find it
very hard to obtain; and as nearly the whole burden of the business
fell upon his shoulders, it was not at all difficult to hide every
thing from Jasper.
Confident as Parker was in his great shrewdness, his speculations
outside of the business did not turn out very favourably. His first
essay was in the purchase of stocks, on which he lost, in a week, two
thousand dollars.
Like the gamester who loses, he only played deeper, in the hope of
recovering his losses; and as it often happens with the gamester, in
similar circumstances, the deeper he played, the more he lost.
And so it went on. Sometimes the young man had a turn of good fortune,
and sometimes all the chances went against him. But he was too far
committed to recede without a discovery. There was no standing still;
and so newer and bolder operations were tried, involving larger and
larger sums of money, until the responsibilities of the firm, added
to the large cash drafts made without the cognizance of Jasper, were
enormous.
To all such mad schemes the end must come; and the end came in this
instance. Failing to procure, by outside operations, sufficient money
to meet several large notes, he was forced to divulge a part of his
iniquity to Jasper, in order to save the credit of the firm. Suspicion
of a deeper fraud being thereby aroused in the mind of his partner,
time, and a sifting investigation of the affairs of the house,
revealed the astounding fact that Parker had abstracted in money, and
given the notes of the firm for his own use, to the enormous amount of
fifty thousand dollars.
A dissolution of co-partnership took place in consequence. Parker,
blasted in reputation, was dragged before a court of justice, in order
to make him disgorge property alleged to be in his possession. But
nothing could be found; and he was finally discharged from custody.
The whole loss fell upon Jasper. He had nursed a serpent in his bosom,
warming it with the warmth of his own life; and the serpent had stung
him. Is it any wonder?
This circumstance, the discovery of Parker's fraudulent doings, took
place about two years prior to the time when Fanny Elder attained her
legal age.
The first thought of Jasper, after his separation from Parker, which
took place immediately on discovering that he had used the credit of
the firm improperly, was to send for Claire, and offer him a salary
of a thousand dollars a year, to come in and fill the responsible
position as clerk, from which Parker had just been ejected as partner.
"I can trust him fully," said Jasper to himself; "and I don't know
anybody else that I can trust. He is honest; I will give him credit
for that; too honest, it may be, for his own good. But, I don't know.
Who would not rather be in his shoes than in Parker's?"
For some time Jasper's mind was favourable to making Claire the offer
proposed, and he was about writing him a note, when a new view of the
case struck him, dependent on the young man's relation to his ward,
Fanny Elder.
"Oh no, no, no!" said he emphatically, speaking to himself--"that,
I fear me, will not do. It would give him too open an access to
my books, papers, and private accounts, in which are entries and
memoranda that it might be dangerous for him to see."
Jasper sighed deeply as he finished this sentence, and then fell into
a musing state. His thoughts, while this lasted, were not of the most
self-satisfying character. Some serious doubts as to his having, in
the main, pursued the wisest course in life, were injected into his
mind; and, remarkable as it may seem for one so absorbed in the love
of gain, there were moments when he almost envied the poor, but honest
clerk, who had an approving conscience, and feared no man's scrutiny.
It was with no slight reluctance that he finally came to the
conclusion that it would be altogether unsafe to take Claire into his
employment. And so he cast about for some one to supply the place
left vacant by Parker's withdrawal from the business. In his final
selection he was not over-fortunate, as the result proved. The new
clerk was shrewd, and capable enough, and apparently as much devoted
to his employer's interests as Jasper could wish. Had not his own
interests been regarded as paramount to those of the merchant, Jasper
would have possessed in him a valuable assistant. But the clerk
did not rise superior to temptations which came in his way.
Jasper continued to trade on the close-cutting, overreaching, and
unscrupulous system; and under such a teacher his clerk proved an apt
learner.
"He cuts right and left," said he to himself, "and why may not I cut
left and right when a good opportunity offers?"
Soon he began to "cut left and right," as he termed it, and it was not
remarkable that, in his cutting operations, his employer occasionally
suffered. The upshot was, after holding his situation a year, that
several false entries, in his hand-writing, were discovered in the
books of Mr. Jasper. To what extent he robbed his employer, the latter
never accurately knew; but he was worse off by at least three or four
thousand dollars through his peculations.
Again the question of taking Claire once more into his employment came
up in the mind of Jasper. After viewing it on every side, the decision
was adverse. He felt that too great a risk was involved. And so he
employed one in whom he could confide with less certainty.
Several years had now passed since the merchant began to feel the
shock of adverse winds. All before was a summer sea, and the ship of
his fortune had bent her sails alone to favouring breezes. But this
was to be no longer. His ship had suffered not only by stress of
weather, but also by the sacrifice of a portion of cargo to save what
remained. And, at last, she was driving on toward the breakers, and
her safety from destruction only hoped for through the activity,
skill, and tireless vigilance of her helmsman.
A few years before, Mr. Jasper considered himself worth between two
and three hundred thousand dollars; now, he passed sleepless nights in
fear of impending ruin. He had trusted in riches; he had called them,
in his heart, the greatest good. At his word they had poured in upon
him from all sides, until he was half bewildered at sight of the
glittering treasures; but, just as he began to feel secure in his
possessions, they began to take themselves wings and fly away.
And, alas for him! he had laid up no other treasures. None in heaven;
none in the hearts of his wife and children; none in his own mind. The
staff upon which he had leaned was now a splintering reed, wounding as
it bent under him.