The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1868-11-21
NUMBER O7,4S2.
A STORY.

| A STORY.
It was not on first impulse, but after
due reflection, that l, George Dunning, az
ticlcd clerk in the office of Messrs. Bustler
and Clark, solicitors, decided on retaing
the bank note which 1 found behind my
desk.
My first impulse, I need hardly say, was to
carry it to one of the firm, with an explain
alton of the way in which I had discovered
it. For the money was certainly not mine;
and l hope 1 was a sufficiently honest man,
if a poor one, to scout the idea of keeping
what did not belong to me. So, as l say,
my first thought was to carry it to one of
my chiefs the earliest thing next morning,
and to relate how, Moving my desk i'll a
search after a favorite pen which had slip
ped behind it and the wall, I had come
upon this Bank of England note amid the
dust and scraps there accumulated.
/ But second thoughts brought doubt, and
perhaps a grain of selishncss. Suppose,
I argued to myself (the rest of the clerks
were gone for the night l had the Office
to myself, and plenty of leisure for reflec-
ton, suppose this money does not belong
to BUSTER and Clark more than to myself?
They have only tenanted this office for
about two years, and the note is dusty
enough to have lain between the desk and
the wall for eight or ten years. Then Bust
ler and Clark!took the furniture as it stands,
on moving in. 1t is possible the note may
have lain there all the time. If they had
lost ii, l should surely have heard some
thing of it. All things considered, may
have right to keep the money without
| FORGETTING my claim to be considered an
honest fellow at all events shall acquire
that right if l convince myself that the
note never belonged to BUSTER and Clark.
| Thinking it out thus, again scrutinized
the valuable scrap of tissue-paper in my
hand. Upon first finding it, l had though
it some such trash as Tom, our otfice-boy,
was accustomed to purchase in the street.
Tom was forever buying cheap pen-knives
which would not cut cheap cast-iron can
mons which burst with the first discharge.
And favorite bargain of Toms was to
spend a penny in a curious assortment of
useless articles, including four brass rings,
a sham breastpin, a counterfeit sovereign.
a printed puzzle, a couple of ballads, and a
note for five pounds on the Bank of Ele.
gance." Therefore l thought my treasure
| trove might be one of Toms precious Bank
of Elegance notes. Yet it was no sham
paper money, mine but a veritable Prom
| Use, signed on behalf of the Governor and
| Company of the national establishment.
Number OF, and for five hundred
pounds.
Trembling with the hope of so sudden
an accession to fortune,-more wealth than
! had ever owned at once,-and with the
fear of losing it as suddenly, l reopened
the safe which it was my duty to lock at
night, and took out the bill-book. Herein
| knew the numbers of all bank-nOtes were
entered which passed through the hands of
the firm. If Number OF, 1852 had ever be-
longed to Bustler and Clark during the last
| five years, l should find record of it in
Il special portion of the bill-book apportion-
ed to Bank of England notes. l run my
eye down the money columns, looking out
Tor five hundred pounds A chill sense of
disappointment struck me as came upon
he entry opposite the date of some eigh-
zen months back. Number OF, 4s2 had
passed through the hands of BUSTER and
Clark. Moreover, it stood recorded as hav-
ING been paid away to William Wylde
and there was q maginal note attached:
See letter of instruction from Theophilus
Lanbrace, Esquire, with number and date
quoted
| Here was mystery at the outset. Num-
Der OF, 4S2 had been paid to William Wylde
eighteen months ago, and yet held it in
my hand. l hunted up the letter of in
struction referred to, among the tied-up'
correspondence of a couple of years back.
The entry was correct. l found the letter
of Theophilus Langbrace, one of the firms
clients, authorizing Messrs. BUSTER and
Clark to pay William Wylde the sum of
five hundred pounds Sin discharge of all
claims on Theophilus Langbrace, and fur
Their requiring Messrs. BUSTER and Clark
| to obtain Wylde's receipt in full for the
amount.
l remembered Wylde now. A shabby
actor, who filled secondary parts at trans
pontine theatre, and who frequented a tav-
ern at which our office boy Tom was too
often seen. 1t was in Toms presence that
had met Wylde, in whom 1 saw little to
admire OF even to tolerate.
| A boastful, truculent man he seemed at
/ the best, much given to gin and to an in
ordinate estimation of his own abilities,
which were more patent to himself than to
| the manager. He had married, as learnt
from Tom on the first introduction, above
his station; i'll fact, it was said that his
wife had been a lady, the daughter of our
client Theophilus Langbrace. How
Wylde's vulgar manner and loud assertive-
ness had fascinated her was a mystery
which the poor lady would never answer
now, for she was dead. 1t had been an i'll
assorted union and Wylde, who had re-
| ceiyCu some assistance from Ills ldlIcf-lll-
law during his wife's lifetime, fell into
worse ways after her death, and grew more
drunken, more dissipated, and more AFRO
CANT.
This, then, was the person for whom the
note for five hundred pounds had evidently
been intended, and who appeared in our
books as having received Number OF, 4s2.
That he had never come into possession of
his due, the obvious gift of his father-in-
law, was proved by the note in my posses
sion. The mystery was not to be cleared
up that night, it was certain; so I deter
mined to wait till next day, and question
old Graham.
Old Graham was clerk in the employ of
Bustler and Clark, a fellow-worker of mine,
with whom we younger fellows held little
communion. He was a shy, little, broken
down, prematurely old man, whose retiring