He is terrified to know his loss. To believe that he was in daily
communication with Esther, and that she must ache to know him, has
sustained David Lockwin in his penance.

The crime he committed, he feels, has been atoned in this year of
lover's agony. That agony was necessary--in order that Esther might be
gradually prepared for the revelation.

She has not been prepared. The labor must begin again, and on new
lines.

The receiver of the Coal and Oil Trust Company's Institution this day
declares a dividend of 10 per cent. The lover may draw over $7,000--a
magnificent estate. It seems greater to him than the wealth of the
Indies or the Peruvians seemed to the early navigators.

He sells his belongings to a second-hand dealer. He hastens his
departure. The folks at Walker street can get another book-keeper.
Robert Chalmers is going to San Francisco. Easy to lie now after the
practice of nearly two years.

But to think that Esther has not read a word of all he has written!
David Lockwin hisses the name of Dr. Tarpion. Many is the time they
have tented together. But how did the doctor know? He had only a
type-written anonymous communication.

Nevertheless this lover curses the administrator as the cause of the
fiasco.