affecting an interest which he did not feel. "For the misfortunes
you have suffered, I always felt grieved, although, perhaps, I was a
little to blame for hastening the crisis in your affairs. But I had
waited a long time for my money, you know."

"Yes, and others will now have to wait a great deal longer, in
consequence of your hasty action," replied Layton, speaking
seriously, but not in a way to offend.

"I am very sorry, but it can't be helped now," said Grasper, looking
a little confused. "I only took the ordinary method of securing my
own. If I had not taken care of myself, somebody would have come in
and swept the whole. You know you couldn't possibly have stood it
much longer."

"If you think it right, Mr. Grasper, I have nothing now to say,"
returned Layton.

"You certainly could not call it wrong for a man to sue another who
has the means, and yet refuses to pay what he owes him?"

"I think it wrong, Mr. Grasper," replied Layton, "for any man to
injure others in his over-eagerness to get his own, and this you
did. You seized four, times as many goods as would have paid your
claim if they had been fairly sold, and had them sacrificed for
one-fourth of their value, thus wronging my other creditors out of
some three thousand dollars in the present, and taxing my future
efforts to make good what was no better than thrown into the sea.
You had no moral right to do this, although you had the power. This
is my opinion of the matter, Mr. Grasper; and I freely express it,