AN OPERATION IN MONEY.

BY ALBERT WEBSTER.

I.

In an elegant and lofty bank-parlor there sat in council, on an autumn morning, fourteen millionaires.  They reposed in deep arm-chairs, and their venerable faces were filled with profound gravity.  Before them, upon a broad mahogany table, were piles of books, sheaves of paper in rubber bands, bundles of quill pens, quires of waste paper for calculations, and a number of huge red-covered folios, containing the tell-tale reports of the mercantile agencies.  They had just completed the selections from the list of applicants for discount, and were now in that state of lethargy that commonly follows a great and important act.

The president, with his hands pressed together before him, was looking at the fresco of Commerce upon the ceiling; his ponderous right-hand neighbor was stumbling feebly over an addition that one of the bookkeepers had made upon one of the papers—­he hoped to find it wrong; his left-hand neighbor was doubling his under-lip with his stout fingers; an octogenarian beyond had buried his chin in his immense neck, and was going to sleep; another was stupidly blinking at the nearest coal-fire; two more were exchanging gasping whispers; another was wiping his gold spectacles with a white handkerchief, now and then stopping to hold them unsteadily up to the light; and another was fingering the polished lapel of his old black coat, and saying, with asthmatic hoarseness to all who would look at him, “F-o-u-r-teen years! f-o-u-r-teen years!”

A tall regulator-clock, with its mercury pendulum, ticked upon the wall; the noise of the heavy rumbling in the streets was softened into a low monotone, and now and then a bit of coal rattled upon the fender.

The oil-portraits of four former presidents looked thoughtfully down on the scene of their former labors; the polished wainscots reflected ragged pictures of the silent fourteen, and all was perfectly in order and perfectly secure.

Presently, however, there was an end to the stagnation; the white heads began to move and to look around.

The president’s eyes came gradually down from the Commerce, and, after travelling over the countenances of his stirring confreres, they settled by accident upon the table before him.  There they encountered a white envelope, inscribed “to the President and Honorable Board of Directors—­Present.”

“Oh gentlemen! gentlemen!” cried the president, seizing the letter, “one moment more, I beg of you.  Here’s a—­a—­note—­a communication—­a—­I don’t know what it is myself, I’m sure, but”—­the thirteen sank back again, feeling somewhat touched that they should be so restrained.  The president ran his eye over the missive.  He smiled as one does sometimes at the precocity of an infant.  “The letter, gentlemen,” said he, slipping the paper through his fingers, “is from the paying teller.  It is a request for”—­here the president delayed as if about making a humorous point—­“for a larger salary.”  Then he dropped his eyes and lowered his head, as he might have done had he confessed that somebody had kissed him.  He seemed to be the innocent mouthpiece of a piece of flagrant nonsense.