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Show 308 HTCIIARD II UHDIS. "But you, my friend, you nrc not tLus desperate-this is not your situation." ""What! you would extort a confession from me, first of my poverty, then of my desperation - you would drag me to the county court, would you, that you migl1t have the proud sntisfHction of cxllOrting the criminal in his last moments, in t11e llresence of twenty tl1ousnnd admiring fcllow-crcaturcs, who come to sec a brother bunched out of life :.md into 11cll. 'l'his is your practice and creed is it 1" "No, my friend," he replied, in a lower tone of voice, which wa~. perhaps, intended to restrain the emphatic utterance of minP. "Know me better, my friend-! would sayc yonsuch is my l1eart-from so drcndful a situntion-yes, I would even defeat the purposes of justice, though I felt persuaded you would sin again in the same fasl1ion. Be not rash-be not hasty in your judgment of me, my friC'nd. I like yon, nnd will say something to you which you will, perl1aps, Le plensed to l1car. But 110t now-one of these Yicious rC'probntes approaches us, and what I say must be kept on ly fo1· your own ears. rl'o-n ight, perhaps-to-n ight." He left me with an uplifted finger, and a look - such a look as Satan may be supposed to ltave fixed on Adam in Paradise. DI~EPJ:R l.'l TilE PLOT. 309 OHAPTEH XLIV. DEEPJ:-:R IN 'l'IIE PLOT. "'Twill Len b:u·gniu nnd sah•, I 8<'e, by thei •· close working of t lteir hends, And running them together 110 in cou nsel."-B~!'1 Jo:.-sos. TuE old hy110crite sougl1t me out again that night. So far, it appears that my part l1ad been acted witl1 tolerable success. My impetuosity, which had been feigned, of course, and the vehemence with which I denounced mankind in declaring my own destitution, were natural enough to a youth who had lost his money, and had no other resources j and I was marked out by the tempter as one so utterly hopeless of the world's favors, as to be utterly 11 cecl less of its regards. Of such, it is wellknown, the best materials for vi llany nrc usually compounded, and our puritan, at a glance, seems to have singled me out as his own. We had stopped to repair some accident to the machinery, and while the passengers were generally making merry on land, I strolled into the woods that immediately bor· dercd upon the river, taki ng care that my reverend fox, whose eye I well knew was UJJOn me, should see the cours<: I took. I was also careful not to move so rapidly as to make it a difficult work to overtake me. As I conjectured would be tho case, he followed and found me out. It was night, but the stn rs were bright enough, and the fires which had been kindled by the boat.hands, gave sufficient light for a ll ord inary objects of sigl1t. I sat down upon the bluff of the river, screened ent irely by the overhanging branches which sometimes almo~t met across the stream, where it was narrow, from the opposite banks. I had not been here ma11y minutes before the tempter was beside me. "You are sad, my friend-your losses trouble you. Dut distrust not Providence, which takes care of us ull, though, |