director, if you improve the opportunities that will be thrown in
your way, without having a good deal more money at your command than
at present."

The charter for the People's Bank was obtained, and when an election
was held, Lawrence went in as a director. He had not held that
position many months, before, by favouring certain paper that was
presented from certain quarters, he got paper favoured that came
from certain other quarters; and in this was individually benefited
by getting the use of about fifteen thousand dollars additional
capital, which came to him really but not apparently from the bank
in which he held a hundred shares of stock. For the sake of
appearances, he did not borrow back his instalments on stock notes.
It was a little matter, and would have looked as if he were pressed
for money.

From this time Sidney Lawrence became a financier, and plunged deep
into all the mysteries of money-raising. His business operations
became daily more and more extended, and he never appeared to be
much pressed for money. At the end of a couple of years, he held the
office of director in two banking institutions, and was president of
an insurance company that issued post-notes on which three per cent.
was charged. These notes, as the institution was in good credit,
could readily be passed through almost any bank in the city. They
were loaned pretty freely on individual credit, and also freely on
real estate and other collateral security.

It is hard to serve two masters. The mind of man is so constituted,
and the influences bearing upon it are so peculiar in their orderly
arrangements, that the more it is concentered upon one object and