The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-11-08
crlminal-and you VIII DO wcrse than

WIDOW.
II dare not ask your forgiveness for the
trouble l am bringing upon you; for I
realize all too clearly the extent of the
wrong have done you. But feel irresist-
IDLY impelled to lay before you in all their
nakedness, as do before my own conscience
the circumstances which have led to my
downfall. A knowledge of these may per-
haps enable you to understand, in a meas
ure, the temptation to which / have sue
cumbed; although / find it hard myself,
now that all is over, to realize how camc
to yield to it.
Perhaps you may remember the cele-
bration of my tiftieth anniversary. We
were having a most enjoyable evening in
the company Of the friends whom you had
invited to participate in the festivities,
when caller was announced was obliged
to leave our guests in order to receive him
in the library. This man lost no time in
stating the nature of his business with me-
His name was Thomas Cha than; he was
an expert accountant, who had been en-
ploycd at the knickerbocker bank to eX-
anime the books, and he coolly informed
me that he had just discovered serious
error in my bookstore that had enabled
depositor to overdraw his account by
large amount. AT first ! refused to be-
leve him. although he submitted copies
from the books showing exactly how the
blunder had been made. When he intimated
that it only rested with me whether the
error should be reported to the bank, I
Indignantly refused to listen to him. He
remained perfectly unruffled during our
interview and left me at last with the
statement that he would wait "a hours be-
fore handing in his report to the presi-
dent.
my first step on reaching the bank
the next day was to verify Chatham state
ments. Alas! they were only too true. There
was the terrible ,blunder staring me in the
face. I could not understand how had
come to make it: but there it was, and
nothing could explain 1t away. Ihad hoped
against hope up to this time; now saw
clearly that l was a ruined man.
There was only one honorable course
open to me-to frankly confess my respon-
sibilty for the blunder and take the con-
sequences. whatever they might be.
hesitated. and 1 was lost.
II hesitated because felt that my posi-
ton was at stake. Would not my error
appear ineXcusable to the officers of the
bank, since could find no paliation for it
in my own eyes? I was so years old.
shrank from the necessity of beginning
again at the foot of the ladder which l
had so laboriously climbed after lifetime
of conscientious plodding. 1t would be
no easy matter for me to find another DO
sition.
The more thought the matter over, the
more became convinced that there might
W oAioeiiCi way oul u my Trouble. was
1t not probable that the depositor who had
profited by my mistake had done 50 inno-
Gently? If So would he not be willing to
repay the amount overdrawn? At the
worst, if he should refuse to do thie might
1t not be possible for me to scrape together
and borrow enough to make good the de-
ticiency? In this way 1 could correct the
blunder and no one would be the wiser for
1t. But what of that man Chatham Would
not his report betray me? l recalled his
intimation that the nature of his repor.
depended upon myself. What did he mean
by that? Probably he would set a price
upon his silence. This would add consid-
erably to the amount l should have to
raise; but would not this be better, after ALL
than the loss of my position? At any rate,
should not be any the worse off for lis
tening to his proposal, whatever it might
be.
TTo Pc Continued