At dinner time he went home, and sat at the table, silent and gloomy; but he scarcely tasted food.

After the meal, he returned to his store--a faint hope springing up in his mind that Edward might have submitted the aid he had asked for so humbly by private hand, or through some broker in the city, and that it would yet arrive in time to save him.

Alas! this proved a vain hope.

Three o'clock came, and the unredeemed note still lay in bank.
"It is all over!" murmured the unhappy man, as like the strokes of a hammer upon his heart fell the three distinct chimes that rung the knell of his business life.
Taking up a newspaper, and affecting to read, Mr.Howland sat for nearly an hour awaiting the notorial visit, which seemed long delayed.

At last he saw a man enter and come walking back toward the desk at which he sat.