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Page 11
It so happened that, while this customer was in, Jasper left the
store. Soon after, a clerk went to dinner. Only a lad remained with
Claire, and he was sent up-stairs to arrange some goods.
The hour of temptation had again come, and the young man's mind was
overshadowed by the powers of darkness.
"Ten dollars clear gain on that transaction," said he to himself, as
he drew open the money-drawer in which he had deposited the cash paid
to him by his late customer.
For some time his thoughts were busy, while his fingers toyed with the
gold and bills in the drawer. Two five-dollar pieces were included in
the payment just received.
"Jasper, surely, ought to be satisfied with one of these." Thus he
began to argue with himself. "I drove the bargain; am I not entitled
to a fair proportion of the profit? It strikes me so. What wrong will
it be to him? Wrong? Humph! Wrong? The wrong has been done already;
but it falls not on his head.
"If I am to do this kind of work for him,"--the feelings of Claire
now commenced running in a more disturbed channel; there were deep
contractions on his forehead, and his lips were shut firmly,--"this
kind of work, I must have a share of the benefit. If I am to sell my
soul, Leonard Jasper shall not have the whole price."
Deliberately, as he spoke this within himself, did Claire take from
the drawer a five-dollar gold piece, and thrust it into his pocket.
"Mine, not his," were the words with which he approved the act. At
the same instant Jasper entered. The young man's heart gave a sudden
bound, and there was guilt in his face, but Jasper did not read its
true expression.
"Well, Edward," said he, cheerfully, "what luck did you have with the
old lady? Did she make a pretty fair bill?"
"So-so," returned Claire, with affected indifference; "about thirty
dollars."
"Ah! so much?"
"Yes; and, what is better, I made her pay pretty strong. She was from
the country."
"That'll do." And Jasper rubbed his hands together energetically. "How
much over and above a fair percentage did you get?"
"About five dollars."
"Good, again! You're a trump, Edward."
If Edward Claire was relieved to find that no suspicion had been
awakened in the thoughts of Jasper, he did not feel very strongly
flattered by his approving words. The truth was, at the very moment he
was relating what he had done, there came into his mind, with a
most startling distinctness, the dream of his wife, and the painful
feelings it had occasioned.
"What folly! What madness! Whither am I going?"
These were his thoughts now, born of a quick revulsion of feeling.
"It is your dinner-time, Edward. Get back as soon as possible. I want
to be home a little earlier than usual to-day."
Thus spoke Mr. Jasper; and the young man, taking up his hat, left the
store. He had never felt so strangely in his life. The first step in
crime had been taken; he had fairly entered the downward road to ruin.
Where was it all to end? Placing his fingers, almost without thought,
in his pocket, they came in contact with the gold-piece obtained by
a double crime--the robbery both of a customer and his employer.
Quickly, as if he had touched a living coal, was the hand of Claire
withdrawn, while a low chill crept along his nerves. It required some
resolution for the young man to meet his pure-hearted, clear-minded
wife, whose quick intuitions of good or evil in others he had over and
over again been led to remark. Once, as he moved along, he thrust his
hand into his pocket, with the suddenly-formed purpose of casting the
piece of money from him, and thus cancelling his guilt. But, ere the
act was accomplished, he remembered that in this there would be no
restoration, and so refrained.
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