A few men heard his story and helped him--one Northern man had given him
employment; his gratitude was defalcation.
To day he has sounded Hugenot; but that man of sentiment alluded to the
business habits of his ancestry, and intimated that he did not lend.
"Ou-ah cause, Andy," he says, with a flourish, "is now negotiating a
loan. When ou-ah beloved country is reduced to such straits, that she
must borow from strangers, I cannot think of relieving private
indigence."
Later in the day, however, Mr. Plade made the acquaintance of an
ingenuous youth from Pennsylvania, and obtaining a hundred francs, for
one day only, sent it straightway to Mr. Auburn Risque.
A second meeting was held at Lees' the third day noon, when the
originator of the "system" sat icily grim behind a table whereon eleven
hundred francs reposed; and the whole colony, crowding breathlessly
around, was amazed to note how little the space taken up by so great a
sum.
They opened a crevice that Lees might be gladdened with the sight of the
gold; for to-day that invalid was unusually dispirited, and could not
quit his bed.
"We are down very low, old Simp," said Pisgah, smilingly, "when either
the possession or the loss of that amount can be an event in our lives.
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