Page:Honest debtor, or, The virtuous man struggling with, rising superior to, and overcoming misfortune (1).pdf/6

( 6 ) duct, I am better informed on that ſubject than you imagine, and you may with all confidence lay open your heart to me.'

'I begin then,' ſaid he, ſmiling, 'by confeſſing, that my misfortunes are entirely owing to myſelf, and that my errors are without excuſe. My profeſſion was one of thoſe that required the ſtricteſt probity; and the firſt law of that probity is, to diſpoſe of nothing that is not our own. I made calculations; but thoſe calculations were erroneous. My imprudence was not the leſs criminal. But I will tell you how I involved in it.

'A reputable family, an unſullied reputation, the eſteem of the public, tranſmitted from my anceſtors to their children; my youth; ſome ſucceſs in which I had been much favoured by circumſtances; all ſeemed to promiſe that I ſhould make a rapid fortune by my profeſſion. This was the very rock on which I ſplit.

'Monſ. d'Amene, a man of fortune, and who conſidered my proſpects as infallible, ventured to build his daughter's happineſs upon theſe deluſive hopes. He offered me her hand ; and as ſoon as we were acquainted, we formed a mutual attachment.-She Were ſhe ſtill living and I were again to chooſe a wife, ſhe alone ſhould be the object of my choice. Yes, my deareſt Adrienne, I would choſe thee from among a thouſand. Others might have more