gazing at the bonds he had left me. I wondered whether he had merely
made a tool of me; whether I could trust him; whether I had done well
to sacrifice my honesty, relying on his promises. And yet there lay my
reward; and, as purely moral considerations did not trouble me, I soon
arose, put the Government bonds and the sixty-five thousand dollars
in securities in the safe, locked up everything, and went home to my
lodgings. As I went in it was broad daylight, for the clock had
gone five, and I met Father Jacques sallying forth. He had already
breakfasted, and was on his way to administer early consolation to the
flower-women in the Piazza. He stopped me with a grieved look, and
said:

"Ah, my friend, these are untimely hours."

I saw I was laboring under an unjust suspicion--a most revolting
thing.

"I have only just come from the bank," I said. "I had to dine at the
Golden House and afterward returned to finish up a bit of work."

"Ah! that is well," he cried. "It is, then, the industrious and not
the idle apprentice I meet?" referring to a series of famous prints
with which my room was decorated, a gift from my father on my
departure.

I nodded and passed on, saying to myself: "Deuced industrious, indeed.
Not many men have done such a night's work as I have."

And that was how my fortunes became bound up with those of the
Aureataland national debt.