Eldridge was the fact, that he should have been so weak and
short-sighted as to permit himself to be thus duped and cheated.

"I knew how it would be," said Mr. Hueston, coolly, when he was told
that Eldridge was in difficulties. "Nothing else was to have been
expected."

"Why so?" inquired the person to whom the remark was made.

"Everybody knows Dalton to be a sharper. Eldridge is not his first
victim."

"I did not know it."

"I did, then, and prophesied just this result."

"You?"

"Yes, certainly I did. I knew exactly how it must turn out. And
here's the end, as I predicted."

This was said with great self-complacency.

Soon after the conversation, a young man, named Williams, who had
only a year before married the daughter of Mr. Hueston, came into
his store with a look of trouble on his countenance. His business
was that of an exchange-broker, and in conducting it he was using
the credit of his father-in-law quite liberally.

"What's the matter?" inquired Mr. Hueston, seeing, by the expression