himself; for poor Joseph--that's my brother, gentlemen--had been
educated a bit above his station, being my mother's favourite son, and
fifteen years younger than me. Mr. Henry took a great deal of notice of
Joseph, and used to talk to him while he was waiting about to see his
father or his uncle. At last he asked the lad one day if he'd like to
leave the bank, and go and live with him as a sort of confidential
servant and amanuensis, to write his letters, and all that sort of
thing. 'I shan't treat you altogether as a servant, you know, Joseph,'
he said, 'but I shall make quite a companion of you, and you'll go about
with me wherever I go. You'll find my quarters a great deal pleasanter
than this musty old banking-house, I can tell you.' Joseph accepted this
offer, in spite of everything my poor mother and I could say to him. He
went to live with the cornet in the January of the year in which the
fabricated bills were presented at our counter."

"And when were the bills presented?"

"Not till the following August, sir. It seems that Mr. Henry had lost
five or six thousand pounds on the Derby. He got what he could out of
his father towards paying his losses, but he could not get more than
three thousand pounds; so then he went to Joseph in an awful state of
mind, declaring that he should be able to get the money in a month or so
from his father, and that if he could do anything just to preserve his
credit for the time, and meet the claims of the vulgar City betting
fellows who were pressing him, he should be able to make all square
afterwards. Then, little by little, it came out that he wanted my
brother, who had a wonderful knack of imitating any body's handwriting,
to forge the acceptance of Lord Vanlorme. 'I shall get the bills back
into my own hands before they fall due, Joe,' he said; 'it's only a
little dodge to keep matters sweet for the time being.' Well, gentlemen,