For months after the disastrous termination of his business, Eldridge lingered about the city in a miserable state of mind.  Some friends obtained for him a situation as clerk, but he did not keep the place very long; it seemed almost impossible for him to fix his attention upon any thing.  This neglect of the interests of his employer was so apparent, that he was dismissed from his place at the end of a few months.  This increased the morbid despondency under which he was labouring, and led to an almost total abandonment of himself.  In less than a year, he was travelling swiftly along the road to utter ruin.

One day, it was just twelve months from the time of Eldridge’s failure, Mr. Hueston stood conversing with a gentleman, when the unhappy young man went reeling by, so much intoxicated that he with difficulty kept his feet.

“Poor fellow!” said the gentleman, in a tone of pity.  “He was badly dealt by.”

“There is no doubt of that,” returned Mr. Hueston.  “Dalton managed his cards with his usual skill.  But I knew how it would be from the first.  I knew that Dalton was a knave at heart, and would overreach him.”

“You did?” was rejoined, with a look and tone of surprise.

“Oh, yes.  I predicted, from the beginning, the very result that has come out.”

“You warned the young man, of course?” inquired the gentleman.

“No.”

“What!  Saw him in the hands of a sharper, and gave him no warning?”

“I never meddle in other people’s affairs.  I find as much as I can do to take proper care of my own.”

“And yet, if common report is true, had you taken a little care of this young man, you would have saved six or seven thousand dollars for yourself.”

“That’s my look-out,” said Mr. Hueston.

“You knew how it would be,” resumed the gentleman, in a severe, rebuking voice, “and yet kept silence, permitting an honest, confiding young man to fall into the clutches of a scoundrel.  Mr. Hueston, society holds you responsible for the ruin of one of its members, equally responsible with the knave who was the agent of the ruin.  A word would have saved the young man; but, in your indifference and disregard of others’ good, you would not speak that word.  When next you see the miserable wreck of a human being that but just now went staggering past, remember the work of your own hands is before you.”

And saying this, the man turned abruptly away, leaving Mr. Hueston so much astonished and bewildered by the unexpected charge, as scarcely to comprehend where he was.  Recovering himself in a moment or two, he walked slowly along, his eyes upon the ground, with what feelings the reader may imagine.

A few days afterwards, his son-in-law, at his instance, went in search of Eldridge for the purpose of offering him assistance, and making an effort to reclaim him.  But, alas! he was too late; death had finished the work of ruin.