Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-16

upon the case at the following Norwich As
sizes, and Howgate was acquitted and re-
leased after sharp reprimand from the
judge.
Notwithstanding his barbarity the man
was valuable and Westlake took him back
into his service. But the esclandre worked
irreparable mischief on Westlake's pros
poets. His practice fell of. Such clients
as still availed themselves of his services
were of the least reputable class, who had
sinister ends of their own to gain, by risk
ing their relatives to Howgate's tender
mercies.
Matters were in this state at the COM
mencement of the year 1857, when cloud
arose in Pierce Wharton's sky. He was
seated one morning in his Office, in the
month of March, going through his CORE
spondence, when his eye fell upon a letter
bearing the Indian postmark. There was
something in that letter that should have
stirred the best feelings in the breast of an
honest man, although it blanched the cheek
of Pierce Wharton when he recognized the
handwriting, and a chill feeling of dismay
smote his heart as soon as he had mastered
its contents.
1t was letter from his old school friend
Charlie Lowndes. Its pages were filled
with chatty gossip of the regimental mess
and the station. 1t breathed throughout
the language of affection and confidence, so
that Pierce Wharton's brow became less
clouded as he read on. Toward the close,
however, the letter went on to say that
Lowndes had obtained his majority at last,
and was looking forward at no distant day
to planting his feet on English soil after
20 years absence. The -th were expecting
to be ordered home Immediately, and in
three or four months time he expected they
would be sailing gaily up Southampton
water. The letter, after expressing the
Joy with which Major Lowndes was look
ing forward to meeting his old chums once
more, concluded by requesting Wharton to
release the securities he held for Lowndes'
benefit and bank the sum in his name.
If the information that Lowndes' return
was close at hand caused palpable tremor
to pass through Pierce Wharton's frame, an
emotion more intense and visible was pro-
duced when he read the instruction requir-
ing him to sell out the shares he held in
Lowndes' behalf. Those shares had been
disposed of months ago to relieve Wharton
from the sharp pressure OF necessity, and
cold though the weather was, thick beads of
perspiration stood upon his pale brow as he
found the obligation suddenly imposed
upon him to bank several thousand pounds
in the name Of Major Lowndes before that
officer arrived at Southampton.
His plain, downright robbery of his friend
he clothed in the euphemistic term-a tenn
porary loan; a'phrase that had helped him
to play juggling tricks with his conscience
when he stopped to the base transaction,
and which went long way in concealing
from himself the true nature of his offense
He overlooked the trifing fact that he had
obtained this temporary loan without the
Al = II.
same, every-ready excuse of weak and
sorely-tempted men for malfeasance. The
clerk who 1'borrows" from his unconscious
employer, the fraudulent trustee who 'bor-
rows" from the widow and orphan, the off,
ciaI who "borrows" from the company that
honors him with its confidence, and all the
gang of nefarious scoundrels who abuse
their positions of trust show little fertility
in excuses for their thefts. They all sing
the same refrain to the praises of "a tenn
porary loan" The world, however, looks
on these transactions with a colder and
sterner eve, and calls these loans, obtained
without consent of the lenders, by the ugly
and incorporating name of embezzle-
ment, and society is judiciallY and execu-
lively organized to see that this class of bor-
rowers receives their due.
The punishment looked very real and for
midable to Pierce Wharton as he sat with
the Indian letter before him. Where was
he to obtain the money wherewith to make
good the wrong he had done his friend?
Not from his uncle. The elder Mr.. Whar-
ton, even if inclined to advance so large
sum to his nephew, would require ample
security, and Wharton had none to give.
More than that, "Uncle Ted'a would be
guilty of the ofense of manifesting an in
ordinate curiosity about the reasons which
justified his nephew in asking for so large a
loan; and Pierce Wharton did not see Yhis
way clear to gratifying "Uncle Ted's" Curl
osity. For one thing, no other reason than
the true reason would go down fer mo-
ment with that sharp man of business, and
Pierce Wharton knew that his upGle would
scarcely advance him 5000 pence to keep
him out of prison and shield him from the
Just consequences Of dishonesty.
Where then was he to obtain, the money?