Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-08-05
A STROKE OF CONSCIENCE.

A STROKE OF CONSCIENCE.
Mr.. Marchmont sat alone in his city
Office, gloomily realizing the fact that
he was a ruined man; and, worse
still, that he had involved others in
his own financial disasters, without
either their knowledge or their con-
sent. 1t was the old, old tale; i'll
fortune in business, rash speculative
investments to meet extravagant ex-
penditure, then misappropriatlon of
trust funds to repair past losses and
enable him to continue his gambling
ventures with the wild hope that pre-
vious misfortunes could be retrieved.
Now all was gone the fortune Of his
orphan clients as well as his own and
in another month or so, when Harold
Williams would be "a, and the "trust
would, by the terms of his old friends
will, have to be rendered up, discovery
of the real condition of affairs must
ensue. 1t was not an agreeable pros
pect, for Mr.. Marchmont, like many
another misapplier Of trust funds, had
never intended to be actually dis
honest any more than does the clerk
or shopman who "borrows' from his
employers "petty cash, or shop till,
to meet his own losses on the race
course. Every gambler with the
money of other people looks forward
to making some "lucky stroke which
shall recoup all his former losses-and
is mostly disappointed in this expecta-
ton. For long time Mr.. Marchmont
had fought desperately against the
evidence of facts, and plunged into
yet wilder speculations with the hope
of retrieving his financial disasters,
but now all was gone the fortune OF
the two orphans Of his Oldest friend
engulfed with his own, and this under
circumstances which would assuredly
lay the defaulting trustee open to a
criminal prosecution, Would it be
wisest to slip quietly away while there
was yet time? But his whole soul
revolted against this idea; for, until
the fatal speculative mania had seized
upon him, Mr.. Marchmont had been
a man of honor and integrity, and was
greatly respected and esteemed by all
who knew him. 1t was, indeed, his
known high reputation which had in
duced his old friend TO place the fu-
ture of his children so unreservedly
in his hands.
"If you will consent to become their
trustee, Marchmont," he had said, 81
shall appoint no one to act with you.
l can trust you fully, and shall leave
everything in your hands until Harold
is "a. l know you'll do your best for
him and Ellie, and keep the money
where it is-in good, safe, non-specu-
lative investments.
Mr.. Marchmont, then a prosperous
merchant, had readily undertaken the
charge laid upon him, and fulfilled it
honestly enough until within year
or so before the time when our story
commences. But there had been a
time of great financial depression, and
Mr.. Marchmont's firm had suffered
like the rest of the world ; and then,
in fatal hour, he had been tempted
to gamble on the Stock Exchange !;
had won, had lost, lost again, grown
reckless, and now that 100000 which
should be handed over to Harold and
his sister in another six weeks was as
nop-existent as was Mr.. Marchmonts s
own private fortune. Business was
most depressed still; and Jenkins, the
other partner, had begun to advocate
boldly facing the real condition Of
things and winding up" the firms
affairs; but Jenkins was, of course,
ignorant of his partners embezzle-
ment of trust funds.
1t is one thing for business man
whose affairs have become involved
through unexpected misfortunes, to
"call meeting of creditors and lay
the facts plainly before them, and an
other to have to confess that trustee
has-to put it bluntly-made away
with money that does not belong to
him. 1t was no small addition to
the torturing anxiety of the situation
that Jenkins was so perpetually ad-
vocating voluntary winding up of
the firm, and candid statement of
their affairs. OF course. the crash and