"It is your dinner-time, Edward. Get back as soon as possible. I want
to be home a little earlier than usual to-day."

Thus spoke Mr. Jasper; and the young man, taking up his hat, left the
store. He had never felt so strangely in his life. The first step in
crime had been taken; he had fairly entered the downward road to ruin.
Where was it all to end? Placing his fingers, almost without thought,
in his pocket, they came in contact with the gold-piece obtained by
a double crime--the robbery both of a customer and his employer.
Quickly, as if he had touched a living coal, was the hand of Claire
withdrawn, while a low chill crept along his nerves. It required some
resolution for the young man to meet his pure-hearted, clear-minded
wife, whose quick intuitions of good or evil in others he had over and
over again been led to remark. Once, as he moved along, he thrust his
hand into his pocket, with the suddenly-formed purpose of casting the
piece of money from him, and thus cancelling his guilt. But, ere the
act was accomplished, he remembered that in this there would be no
restoration, and so refrained.

Edward Claire felt, while in the presence of his young wife, that she
often looked into his face with more than usual earnestness. This not
only embarrassed but slightly fretted him, and led him to speak once
in a way that brought tears to her eyes.

Not a minute longer than necessary did Claire remain at home. The fact
that his employer had desired him to return to the store as quickly
as possible, was an all-sufficient reason for his unusual hurry to get
away.

The moment the door closed upon him, his wife burst into tears. On