Read Ebook: Living Too Fast; Or The Confessions of a Bank Officer by Optic Oliver

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Ebook has 1751 lines and 69735 words, and 36 pages

"Thank you, Miss Oliphant; I should be delighted to take him with me, and as he is here, he can speak for himself," replied Tom.

"Just a quiet little party of half-a-dozen at our house, to-morrow evening. I hope you will come, Mr. Glasswood," she added.

"I should be very happy to join you, and I will do so," I answered.

She was very pretty, and she seemed to grow prettier every moment that I looked at her. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled so sweetly, that I am forced to acknowledge I experienced a new sensation in her presence. I repeated my promise to join the little party, and no entreaty was necessary to render me a willing follower. She bowed and passed on, mingling with the bright throng that gaily flitted up and down Washington Street. My eyes followed her till she was lost in the crowd, and I almost forgot that I was an applicant for the situation of discount clerk in the Forty-ninth National Bank.

"Well, Paley, they say the place will be filled at the meeting of the directors to-morrow forenoon," said Tom, calling me away from the sea of moonshine in which I was at that moment floating, as my eyes followed the graceful form of Miss Oliphant.

"She is a very pretty girl," laughed Tom.

"Tell me what I don't know. What is she?"

"She is the daughter of a small merchant, who is in rather shaky circumstances, they say. He lives on Tremont Street, and has three marriageable daughters.

"If they are all as passable as the one I have just seen, their chances are good."

"I don't know about that," added Tom, laughing. "Miss Lilian dresses magnificently, you perceive; and whoever marries one of those girls will find money a cash article. You shall see them all to-morrow."

"I should say that a wife like this Miss Oliphant was cheap at any price."

"I think so myself, if a fellow can afford such an expensive luxury. But, Paley, we must not waste our time," added Tom, glancing at the Old South clock. "I must find a man who can do a good thing for me at the bank."

We parted, and as I walked down the street, I could not help recalling the vision of loveliness I had beheld in the person of Miss Lilian Oliphant. I was on my way to one of the insurance offices frequented by my uncle, Captain Halliard, a retired shipmaster, who dabbled in stocks, and was a director in the Japan Marine Insurance Company. He had influence, and I relied principally upon him to engineer my application at the bank. He was a man of the world in the broadest sense of the term. He believed in making money, and in getting ahead in business, and though he paid a reasonable respect to conventional forms, I am not quite certain that he believed in anything higher. In character and purposes, he was the very antipode of my mother, whose brother he was.

I found him reading a newspaper in the office. He dropped it when he saw me, and I thought he looked very anxious. He had undertaken to procure me the situation I was ambitious to obtain, and though I don't think he cared much for me individually, he was persistent in carrying out any scheme upon which he had fixed his mind.

"Paley, your chance is small," said he, candidly, after we had passed the time of day.

My heart sank within me.

"I am sorry to hear it," I replied, gloomily.

"Tom Flynn has the inside track."

As usual! It seemed to be laid down as the immutable law of circumstances that Tom should always come out just a little ahead of me. I was vexed. Tom had six hundred dollars a year, while I had but five hundred. It was cruel and unjust to me. His income was to be doubled, and mine to remain as it was.

"I was afraid Tom would get ahead of me," I added. "But I would rather he should have the place than any other person, if I can't get it."

"Nonsense, Paley. Don't talk bosh! I haven't given up all hope yet, by any means. Tom is well enough, I dare say, but you must have this place, if possible."

"I should like to have it," I added, hopelessly.

"Paley, what was that story about Tom which was kept so still in Springhaven?" continued Captain Halliard in a low tone. "I heard your mother say something about it, when she was speaking about your being intimate with him. I have forgotten about it."

"His employers in Springhaven thought that he took money from the safe."

"Exactly so; that was the idea," added my uncle, rubbing his hands involuntarily.

"But I don't think there was any foundation for the suspicion," I protested, rather faintly, too faintly to produce any decided effect.

"We are not called upon to try the case," he replied, chuckling at his own cunning.

"But I don't wish to have anything to say about that old affair."

"Then you needn't have anything to say about it, except to me. I have begun to manage this business, and I shall finish it."

"I don't want to injure Tom in the estimation of any one," I added.

"Don't be a spooney, Paley. You must look out for your own chances. You can have this place, if we can get Tom off the track."

Although I was not the author of the brilliant idea foreshadowed in my uncle's remarks, I permitted him to develop it. I told him all I knew about Tom's affair with Gorham & Welch. If I stated that those who knew anything about the matter now generally believed that the junior partner was the thief, I stated it so mildly that my uncle took no notice of it. I confess that I virtually assented to his scheme; at least, I offered no decided opposition to it. I knew that Captain Halliard had only to whisper the fact that Tom had been suspected, and had lost his situation in consequence of this suspicion, to throw my chief competitor out of the field.

Practically, I assented to the scheme; if I did anything to prevent its being carried into execution, I only "fastened the door with a boiled carrot." I wanted the place, not alone for its emoluments, but in order, in the race of life, to surpass my friend. I regard this weak yielding as my first crime--the crime against my friend, one of the basest and most loathsome in the calendar of offences. This was my real fall; and it was this, it has since seemed to me, which made me capable of all that followed.

I left my uncle in the office, and went back to the store in which I was employed. Between the bright vision of Miss Oliphant's loveliness and the dark one of my own perfidy, I was nervous and uneasy all the rest of the day. What was the use of being over nice? If I did not look out for myself, no one would look out for me! I think I did not sleep an hour that night, and the next day I performed my duties mechanically. About one o'clock I was rather startled to see Tom Flynn enter the counting-room.

"Paley, my dear fellow, I congratulate you," said he, grasping my hand.

"What's the matter, Tom?" I asked.

"Why, haven't you heard of it?"

"Heard of what?"

"You have been appointed discount clerk in the Forty-ninth National Bank. 'Pon my soul, I am glad to be the first to tell you of it," added Tom, with enthusiasm, as he rung my hand.

Iniquity had prospered, but only for a time.

MISS LILIAN OLIPHANT.

HOW could I look Tom Flynn in the face, after what I had done, or permitted to be done? He had been my competitor in the race for the situation in the bank, and probably would have obtained it if my uncle had not whispered the old slander in the ears of Mr. Bristlebach, the president. It is true this plan had originated with Captain Halliard, but I consented to it, to say the very least. I could have prevented him from carrying it into operation. I could have protested in the strongest of terms that there was no truth in the story, and that I would not take the place if it were procured for me by such a base sacrifice of honor and integrity.

I did not do so. If I protested at all, it was so faintly that my worldly-minded uncle only regarded it as a piece of "buncombe." It is not for me to blame him, for I regard myself as equally guilty of the infamous deed--more guilty, for Tom was my friend. It is a satisfaction for me now to know that I blushed when my old schoolfellow entered the counting-room; and to remember that my conscience stung me like a hot iron when he informed me that the situation had been given to me. It was not the glorious triumph which I had anticipated, and I could hardly felicitate myself that I was to step immediately into the enjoyment of a salary of twelve hundred a year. I could not even enjoy the triumph of being, for once, actually ahead of my fortunate friend.

"I congratulate you, Paley, with all my soul," said Tom, with enthusiasm. "I should have liked the place myself, but I am really better satisfied with the result, than I should have been if I had been successful."

"You don't mean that, Tom," I suggested; and I felt that I was almost incapable of giving birth to a lofty emotion.

"'Pon my word, I do, Paley. I was thinking this forenoon that, if the place fell to me, I should reproach myself for having stood in your way. I never should have felt just right about it. Now I am satisfied--more than satisfied; I am delighted with the result."

"I thank you, Tom. I didn't expect any such magnanimity from any person in this world;" but I comforted myself with the thought that, if the place had been assigned to him, he would have contrived to endure the disappointment which fell to my lot.

"If I had known that you were an applicant, with any chance of success, I would not have entered the field. But it is all right as it is; and I am as much pleased as you are," added Tom.

"I don't exactly see how I happened to get the place," I replied, in order to tempt him to tell what he knew about the canvass, rather than because I was astonished at the result.

"I do," answered Tom, laughing. Your uncle, Captain Halliard, has a great deal of influence with Mr. Bristlebach, the president. Rhodes--you know Rhodes?"

"I know of him; he's book-keeper in the Forty-ninth National."

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