Page:Honest debtor, or, The virtuous man struggling with, rising superior to, and overcoming misfortune (1).pdf/16

( 16 ) mented and joined to ſome gains, which I have acquired by commerce, double the amount of my ſavings. If this remittance has been tardy, I beg, ſir, you will notice, that the delay has been occaſioned by the death of the only truſty correſpondent I had at Paris, and henceforth, I hope, you will be ſo good as to ſupply his place. Alas! I may yet labour fifteen years before I can diſcharge all, but I am only five and thirty. At fifty I ſhall be free; the wound in my heart will be healed. A multitude of voices will proclaim my integrity; and I ſhall be able to return to my country with an unbluſhing countenance. Ah! ſir, how ſweet and conſolatory is the idea, that the eſteem of my fellow citizens will be reſtored to grace my old age, and to crown my grey hairs.

'He had hardly finiſhed ſpeaking, when delighted at this exemplary probity, “ I embraced him, and aſſured him, that I never had met with a more excellent man than himſelf. This mark of my eſteem affected. him deeply, and he told me, with tears in his eyes, that he ſhould never forget the conſolation that accompanied my farewell."

'When I arrived at Paris. I made his payments. His creditors were deſirous of knowing where he was, what he was doing, and what were his reſources. Without explaining myſelf in that reſpect, I impreſſed them with the ſame good opinion of his in-