means required, even there, of doing it to the best advantage. And for some
years he _did_ engage in business to advantage, the same strangely good
luck attending him, and prospering wonderfully in all he undertook, till he
gained the reputation of being among the wealthiest of the city. But the
spoiler came in a second appearance of Gaut Gurley, who, having squandered
in the country the bounteous sums of money which Elwood had paid him for
his services, now followed the latter to the city. And, with the coming of
that personage, together with the foolish ambition that had, about that
time, seized Elwood, to outshine some of his city competitors in display
and expensive living, commenced the wane of a fortune which, as large as it
was, it had required but two short years to bring to the verge on which we
represented its unhappy master as standing in the opening scene of our
story.

Having now related all we designed in this retrospect of events, we will
return from the somewhat long but necessary digression, and take up the
thread of the narrative where we left it.




CHAPTER III.


"I strive in vain to set the evil forth.
The words that should sufficiently accurse
And execrate the thing, hath need
Come glowing from the lips of eldest hell.
Among the saddest in the den of woe,
Most sad; among the damn'd, most deeply damn'd."