Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/73

Rh with their creditors. He adduced case upon case where this had been done in similar circumstances, and a pretty penny saved, and no reputation lost. Harry would not listen to his proposition. He said, the frequency of such proceedings was an argument in his mind against them. He would not add his mite to sully the mercantile reputation of his country; and that if, by the arrangement Finley proposed, he did not lose his good name, he should lose his self-respect, which was still dearer to him. The inflexibly honest man is unmanageable, and Finley was at last compelled to yield. They stopped in time to pay every penny of their debts, and retain the respect of their creditors; and Harry began the world anew, with fresh vigour, springing from a conscience void of offence. Morris profited by Harry's firmness. One of their creditors, struck by the honesty of the firm, and giving the parties equal credit for it, offered Finley an employment which, as he afterward said, was the first rung of the ladder on which he mounted to fortune.

Some months passed away, and Paulina continued to be a belle in Essex, and flattered by young men of every degree. The report of her engagement to Harry was found to have arisen from the devotions of his partner, Morris Finley, to her. These devotions were abated by a third marriage of Paulina's mother, by which she put into the hands of a young spendthrift some fifteen thousand dollars, received from her last doting and deluded husband. Paulina seemed at first much affected by Finley's desertion; but, after a while, she turned to other lovers; and, when her mother's young