“Is it necessary to ask the question?”

“No, it isn’t, but I am happy to-night, and I am in a humour to talk and dream.  You must let me have my own room—­and call it Abraham’s sanctum.  A good name, eh?  I will come when I like, and go when I like—­eat, drink, and be merry, Mike.  How white with envy Old Varley will get, when he sees me driving to business in my boy’s carriage.  A pretty match he made of it—­that son of his married the cook, and sent her to a boarding-school.  Stupid fool!”

“Young Varley is a worthy fellow, father.”

“Can’t be—­can’t be—­worthy fellows don’t marry cooks.  But don’t stop me in my plans.  I said you should give me my own room, Mike—­and so you shall—­and every Wednesday shall be a holiday.  We’ll be in the country together, and shoot and fish, and hunt, and do what every body else does.  We’ll be great men, Mike, and we’ll enjoy ourselves.”

And so the man went on, elevated by the circumstances of the day, and by the prospects of the future, until he became intoxicated with his pleasure.  On the following morning he rose just as elated, and went to business like a boy to play.  About noon, he was talking to a farmer in his quiet back room, endeavouring to drive a hard bargain with the man, whom a bad season had already rendered poor.  He spoke loud and fast—­until, suddenly, a spasm at the heart caught and stopped him.  His eyes bolted from their sockets—­the parchment skin of his face grew livid and blue.  He staggered for an instant, and then dropped dead at the farmer’s foot.  The doctors were not wrong when they pronounced the banker’s heart diseased.  A week after this sudden and awful visitation, all that remained of Abraham Allcraft was committed to the dust, and Michael discovered, to his surprise and horror, that his father had died an insolvent and a beggar.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VII.

THE END OF THE BEGINNING.

Abraham Allcraft, with all his base and sordid habits, was a beggar.  His gluttony had been too powerful for his judgment, and he had speculated beyond all computation.  His first hit had been received in connexion with some extensive mines.  At the outset they had promised to realize a princely fortune.  All the calculations had been made with care.  The most wary and experienced were eager for a share in the hoped for el dorado, and Abraham was the greediest of any.  In due time the bubble burst, carrying with it into air poor Abraham’s hard-earned fifty thousand pounds, and his hearty execrations.  Such a loss was not to be repaired by the slow-healing process of legitimate business.  Information reached him respecting an extensive manufactory in Glasgow.  Capabilities of turning half a million per annum existed in the house, and were unfortunately dormant simply because the moving principle was wanting.  With a comparatively moderate capital, what could not be