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“I can see that too.”

“It is owing to Larkin’s mean pride that you are driven to this extremity. He ought to pay for it.”

“But how am I to get hold of two hundred dollars? That’s the question.”

“Is there ordinarily much cash on hand?”

“Yes. We deposit some days as high as ten thousand dollars; particularly at this season, when a good many merchants are in.”

“The chance is fair enough. Two hundred won’t be missed.”

“No, not until the cash is settled, and then it will come to light.”

“That does n’t follow.”

“I think it does.”

“You may prevent it.”

“How?”

“Miss a couple of tens in your additions on the debit side of the cash book. Do you understand?”

“Not clearly.”

“You are dull. Change a figure in footing up your cash book, so that it will balance, notwithstanding a deficit of two hundred dollars. After you come back, this can be set right again. No one will think of adding up the back columns to see if there is any fraud.”

“After Sanford ceased speaking, his friend cast his eyes to the floor, and reflected for some time. There was in his mind a powerful struggle between right and wrong. When the plan was first presented, he felt an inward shrinking from it. It involved an act of fraud, that, if found out, would blast his character. But the longer he reflected, and the more fully he looked in the face of the fact that without money he could not proceed to the consummation of his wishes, the more favorable the plan seemed.

“But,” he said, lifting his eyes and drawing a long breath, “if it should be found out?”

“Larkin will not expose his son-in-law for his daughter’s sake.”

“True–there is something there to hope for. Well, I will think of it. I must have two hundred dollars from some source.”

And he did think of it to evil purpose. He found no very great difficulty in getting Jane to consent to run away with him, especially as her particular friend, Harriet Meadows, was to accompany her on a like mad-cap expedition with Sanford.

Nothing occurred to prevent the acts proposed. By false entries, Hatfield was enabled to abstract two hundred dollars in a way that promised a perfect concealment of the fraud, although in doing it he felt much reluctance and many compunctions of conscience.

About ten days after the conversation between the young men, just given, Jane Larkin obtained her mother’s consent to spend a few days with a cousin who resided some miles from the city on a road along which one of the omnibus lines passed. Harriet Meadows did not use this precaution to elude suspicion. She left her father’s house at the time agreed upon, and joined young Sanford at an appointed place, where a carriage was waiting, into which Hatfield and Jane had already entered. The two couples then proceeded to the house of an alderman, who united them in marriage bonds. From thence they drove to a railroad depot, took passage for a neighboring city, and were soon gliding away, a suspicion unawakened in the minds of the young ladies’ friends.

The absence of Harriet on the night following alarmed the fears and awakened the suspicions of her father and mother. Early on the next day, Mr. Meadows learned that his daughter had been seen entering the—-cars in company with young Sanford. Calling upon Millard, he ascertained that Sanford had not been to the store on the previous day, and was still absent. To merge suspicion and doubt into certainty, the alderman who had married the couples was met accidentally. He testified to the fact of his having united them. Sick at heart, Mr. Meadows returned home to communicate the sad intelligence to the mother of Harriet. When he again went out, he was met by the startling rumor that a defalcation had been discovered on the part of young Sanford to a large amount. Hurrying to the store of Mr. Millard, he was shocked to find that the rumor was but, alas! too true. Already false entries in the cash book had been discovered to the amount of at least five thousand dollars. An officer, he also learned, had been despatched to—-, for the purpose of arresting the dishonest clerk and bringing him back to justice.