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“Can it be raised at all? Is there any hope of saving the institution?” asked one of the board, at length.

“In my opinion, none in the world,” was replied by another. “I have thought of little else but the affairs of the company since yesterday, and I am satisfied that all hope is gone. There are thirty thousand dollars to be provided to-morrow. Our balance is but five thousand, even if all the bills maturing to-day have been paid.”

“Which they have, I presume, as no protests have come in,” remarked the president.

“But what is the sum of five thousand dollars set off against thirty thousand? It is as nothing.”

“Surely, gentlemen are not prepared to give up in this way,” said the president, earnestly. “A failure will be a most disastrous thing, and we shall all be deeply sufferers in the community if it takes place. We must make efforts and sacrifices to carry it through. Here are twelve of us; can we not, on our individual credit, raise the sum required? I, for one, will issue my notes to-morrow for twenty thousand dollars. If the other directors will come forward in the same spirit, we may exchange the bills among each other, and by endorsing them mutually, get them through the various banks where we have friends or influence, and thus save the institution. Gentlemen, are you prepared to meet me in this thing?”

Two or three responded affirmatively. Some positively declined; and others wanted time to think of it.

“If we pause to think, all is ruined,” said Mr. Lawrence, excited. “We must act at once, and promptly.”

But each member of the board remained firm to the first expression. Nothing could be forced, and reflection only tended to confirm those who opposed the president’s views in their opposition to the plan suggested. The meeting closed, after two hours’ perplexing deliberation, without determining upon any course of action. At ten o’clock on the next day the directors were to meet again.

Mr. Lawrence walked the floor for half of that night, and lay awake for the other half. To sleep was impossible. Thus far, in the many difficulties he had encountered, a way of escape from them had opened either on the right hand or on the left, but now no way of escape presented itself. A hundred plans were suggested to his mind, canvassed and then put aside. He saw but one measure of relief, if it could be carried out; but that he had proposed already, and it was not approved.

The unhappy state in which she saw her husband deeply distressed Mrs. Lawrence. Earnestly did she beg of him to tell her all that troubled him, and let her bear a part of the burden that was upon him. At first he evaded her questions; but, to her oft-repeated and tenderly urged petition to be a sharer in his pains as well as his pleasures, he mentioned the desperate state of affairs in the company of which he was president.

“But, my dear husband,” she replied to this, “you cannot be held responsible for the losses the institution has sustained.”

“True, Florence; but the odium, the censure, the distress that must follow its failure,–I cannot bear to think of these. My credit, too, will suffer, for I shall lose all I have invested in the stock, and this fact, when known, will impair confidence.”

“All this is painful and deeply to be regretted, Sidney,” said the wife, speaking in as firm a voice as she could assume. “But as it is a calamity that cannot now be avoided, and is not the result of any wrong act of yours, let a clear conscience sustain you in this severe trial. Let the public censure, let odium be attached to your name–so long as your conscience is clear and your integrity unsullied, these cannot really hurt you.”

But this appeal had little or no effect. The mind of the unhappy man could not take hold of it, nor feel its force. It was repeated again and again, and with as little effect. Finally he begged to be left to his own reflections. In tears his wife complied with his request. That night she slept as little as her miserable husband.