"He may be sick." "I will do so," replied the clerk, and Wilkinson retired, feeling by no means comfortable.

By this time it was nearly one o'clock, and six or seven hundred dollars were yet required to make him safe for that day's payments.

The failure of Ellis to keep his promise laid upon him an additional burden, and gradually caused a feeling of despondency to creep in upon him.

Instead of making a new and more earnest effort to raise the money, he went back to his store, and remained there for nearly half an hour, in a brooding, disheartened state of mind.

A glance at the clock, with the minute-hand alarmingly near the figure 2, startled him at length from his dreaming inactivity; and he went forth again to raise, if possible, the money needed to keep his name from commercial dishonour.