"It was then that the demon of avarice took full possession of me.
Visions of millions came to me, and I determined to become the richest
man in the kingdom. After this I turned every thing I had into money to
invest in the mine. I raised enormous sums on my landed estate, and put
all that I was worth, and more too, into the speculation. I was
fascinated, not by this man, but by the wealth that he seemed to
represent. I believed in him to the utmost. In vain my friends warned
me. I turned from them, and quarreled with most of them. In my madness I
refused to listen to the entreaties of my poor wife, and turned even
against you. I can not bear to allude to those mournful days when you
denounced that villain to his face before me; when I ordered you to beg
his pardon or leave my roof forever; when you chose the latter
alternative and became an outcast. My noble boy--my true-hearted son,
that last look of yours, with all its reproach, is haunting my dying
hours. If you were only near me now how peacefully I could die!

"My strength is failing. I can not describe the details of my ruin.
Enough that the mine broke down utterly, and I as chief stockholder was
responsible for all. I had to sell out every thing. The stock was
worthless. The Hall and the estates all went. I had no friend to help
me, for by my madness I had alienated them all. All this came upon me
during the last year.

"But mark this, my son. This man Potts was _not_ ruined. He seemed
to have grown possessed of a colossal fortune. When I reproached him
with being the author of my calamity, and insisted that be ought to
share it with me, the scoundrel laughed in my face.

"The Hall and the estates were sold, for, unfortunately, though they