Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/302

 guilty o' ony indiscretion in his days; but just only trusted o'er far to the honesty and discretion of a fau'se-hearted loon, that cheated mony a man that kent mair o' business than he did. It was nae fau't o' William's, that the man was a rogue; yet he blames himsel in a way that vexes me to hear him."

"I do blame myself," said William; "for had I been contented to go on with my business, as my father did before me, on a scale within my means, my profits, though small, would have been certain. But I wished to raise my wife and bairns above their station; and God, who saw the pride of my heart, has punished me."

"If you only risked your own," said Mrs Mason, "your ambition was blameless, and your exertions laudable."

"Alas! Madam," returned William, "no man that enters into what they call speculations in business, can say that he risks only his own: he risks the money of his friends, and of his neighbours, and of