Thus stood the affair between my fair cousin and myself--a

condition of things seriously and equally affecting her health and

my temper--when an explosion took place, of a nature calculated to

humble my uncle and myself, if not in equal degree, or to the same

attitude, at least to a most mortifying extent in both cases. I

have not stated before--indeed, it was not until the affair which

I am now about to relate had actually exploded, that I was made

acquainted with any of the facts which produced it--that, prior to

my father's death, there had been some large business connections

between himself and my uncle.

In those days secret connections in

business, however dangerous they might be in social, and more than

equivocal in moral respects, were considered among the legitimate

practices of tradesmen. What was the particular sort of relations

existing between my father and uncle, I am not now prepared to

state, nor is it absolutely necessary to my narrative. It is enough

for me to say that an exposure of them took place, in part, in

consequence of some discovering made by my father's unsatisfied

creditors, by which the obscure transactions of thirty years

were brought to light, or required to be brought to light; and in

the development of which, the fair business fame of my uncle was

likely to be involved in a very serious degree--not to speak of

the inevitable effects upon his resources of a discovery and proof

of fraudulent concealment. The reputation of my father must have

suffered seriously, had it not been generally known that he left

nothing--a fact beyond dispute from the history of my own career,

in which neither goods nor chattels, lands nor money, were suffered

to enure to my advantage.

The business was brought to me. The merchant who brought it, and who

had been busy for some years in tracing out the testimony, so far

as it could be procured, gave me to understand that he had determined

to place it in my hands for two reasons: firstly, to enable me

to release the memory of my father from the imputation--under any

circumstances discreditable--of bankruptcy, by compelling my uncle

to disgorge the sums which he had appropriated, and which, as was

alleged, would satisfy all my father's creditors; and, secondly,

to give me an opportunity of revenging my own wrongs upon one, of

whose course of conduct toward me the populace had already seen

enough, during the last election, to have a tolerably correct idea.

I examined the papers, thanked my client for his friendly intentions,

but declined taking charge of the case for two other reasons. My

relations to the dead and to the living were either of them sufficient

reasons for this determination. I communicated the grounds of

action, in a respectful letter, to my uncle, and soon discovered,

by the alarm which he displayed in consequence, that the cause

of the complaint was in all probability good. The case belonged to

the equity jurisdiction, and the relator soon filed his bill.




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