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have been some excuse for a crime committed by Felix without any. But, fearing detection from Mr. Hardman's awakened watchfulness, Felix changed his ways of proceeding, slipped the receipts for goods paid by ready money into his own pocket instead of into the till, and set them down as unpaid in his master's ledger, at the suggestion of some of his wicked associates; and concealed his having received the payment of bills for articles delivered at customers' houses, trusting to their not being sent in again before Christmas, by which time he vaguely persuaded himself he should be out of the way. Finally, he ventured on the desperate measure of forging Mr. Hardman's hand-writing, and writing a cheque, which he vainly fancied might elude observation, by his giving it to one of his companions to whom he owed money, telling him to take his debt out of it. His doing so was the means of detection, for after more than one repetition of this misdeed, always accompanied by some such cunningly-devised (as Felix thought) plan of concealment, the banker's suspicions were aroused. He communicated them to Mr. Hardman, who traced out the man that had presented the cheque, and he at once betrayed Felix, This happened on the very day that Felix had, by a specious pretext of his sister being alarmingly ill, obtained leave to go and see her from Mr. Hardman, who had frequently refused the permission Felix had asked for a holiday. Judge what must have been Mr. Hardman's indignation, and poor Olive's horror

and distress, when, being extremely uneasy at the length of time it was since she had seen Felix, and his taking no notice of her letters, she arrived in the evening at the ironmonger's house, to inquire what could be the reason."

Jane. "Could nothing be done to save him from punishment?"

Mary. "Mr. Hardman was by no means a hardhearted or vindictive man. When he visited Felix in prison, he told him that he would willingly have forgiven the injury done to himself, had the amount been five times greater than it was, and have forborne to prosecute him; but it was urged upon him by those whose opinion he was bound to respect, and his own judgment convinced him, he would not be doing his duty if he did not bring the unhappy man to justice, as an example to deter others."

Bessy.

it?"

"And his poor sister, how did she bear

Mary. "She was, as you may suppose, exceedingly afflicted. The family with whom she lived were very kind to her, and assured her they should never think the worse of her, and would endeavour to guard her as much as possible from the disgrace she felt her brother's bad conduct brought on her. My father was able to obtain leave for her to go with him to see the unhappy Felix before he left England; and it was a consolation to her to find him thoroughly impressed with the guilt of his conduct, and very penitent. There was another person who

deeply shared poor Olive's distress. This was a young woman named Agnes Carfan, who had been a neighbour and playmate of the Wartleys from their earliest years, and had engaged herself to marry Felix whenever they should have saved money sufficient to enable them to do so with prudence. She was in service in the country, and on her this sad intelligence came like a thunder-bolt. At first, the poor girl was inclined to reproach herself for having resisted Felix's frequent solicitations that she would come to London, and marry him without further delay. She fancied that had she yielded, she might have restrained him from following these evil courses. But she soon remembered that if higher considerations failed, it was not likely that love for her would have had much effect; and, indeed, he confessed that it was with the view of getting at the money he knew she had saved, that he pressed her. She was one of those who are always willing to see good in everything; and she consoled herself in some degree with the thought that, had Felix gone on unchecked, his soul might have been lost for ever; and she trusted that this severe chastisement might ultimately tend to his salvation. She strongly urged this upon him; and he made her most solemn promises, which I trust he may now be fulfilling, to amend, and, with the blessing of God, to endeavour to do all that in him lay to expiate his sins."

CHAPTER XIV.

"Slander, like a noxious weed, can spoil
The fairest flow'rs, and choke the soil:
The insidious sland'ring thief is worse
Than the poor rogue who steals your purse.
God is alike both good and wise

In what He grants, and what denies :
Perhaps, what Goodness gives to-day,
To-morrow Goodness takes away."

THE next time the cousins had an opportunity of continuing their conversations, Bessy observed that the prohibition, expressed in the Ninth Commandment, did not, of course, apply only to swearing to evidence as a witness in a court of law. To which Mary replied:

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'Certainly not. In that case very few would be the persons and occasions with whom or when the observance or breach of it would be practicable; and we cannot but conceive that the Divine injunctions were intended for our guidance in the usual occurrences of life. My father has often said there

is no commandment more frequently transgressed; and that it arose, probably, in great measure from the heinousness of the offence being little understood or thought of; although the heinousness is beyond question great, involving as it does both disobedience to God and a grievous injury to our neighbour."

Jane. "But if it be done in ignorance, not knowing what is said to be untrue, it cannot be called false witness."

Mary. "To repeat what we hear, or what we imagine may be true, would certainly not be so grave a fault as to invent and publish what is false to the disadvantage of another. Still, it would be showing uncharitable haste to spread evil reports of our neighbour, and culpable carelessness if we did not take the trouble to ascertain the facts before we repeated them. Besides, why should we ever repeat what is to the discredit of another, whether true or untrue? In the Catechism, we learn, in our duty to our neighbour, to keep our tongues from evilspeaking, lying, and slandering. Many are the passages in the Bible that may be brought in aid of this precept. 'Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.'1 'Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people." A tale-bearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.'s 'He that covereth a transgression seeketh (or procureth) love, but he that re2 Levit. xix. 16. 3 Prov. xi. 13.

1 Exod. xxiii. 1.

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