“Ah, my boy! how are you?” said Carlton, grasping the hand of Ellis and shaking it heartily.

“Glad to see you, ’pon my word!  Where do you keep yourself?”

“You’ll generally find me at my store during business hours,” replied Ellis.

“What do you call business hours?” was asked by Carlton.

“From eight or nine in the morning until six or seven in the evening.”

“Yes—­yes—­yes!  With you as with every other ‘business’ man I know.  Business every thing—­living nothing.  You’ll get rich, I suppose; but, by the time your sixty or a hundred thousand dollars are safely invested in real estate or good securities, health will have departed, never to return.”

“Not so bad as that, I presume,” returned Ellis.

“How can it be otherwise?  The human body is not made of iron and steel; and, if it were, it would never stand the usage it receives from some men, you among the number.  For what are the pure air and bright sunshine made?  To be enjoyed only by the birds and beasts?  Man is surely entitled to his share; and if he neglects to take it, he does so to his own injury.  You don’t look well.  In fact, I never saw you look worse; and I noticed, when I took your hand, that it was hot.  Now, my good fellow! this is little better than suicide on your part; and if I do not mistake, you are too good a Christian to be guilty of self-murder.  Why don’t you ride out and take the air?  You ought to do this daily.”

“Too expensive a pleasure for me,” said Ellis.  “In the first place, with me time is money, and, in the second place, I have no golden mint-drops to exchange for fast horses.”

“I have a fine animal at your service,” replied the tempter.  “Happy to let you use him at any time.”

“Much obliged for the offer; and when I can run away from business for a few hours, will avail myself of it.”

“What do you say to a ride this morning?  I’m going a few miles over into Jersey, and should like your company above all things.”

“I hardly think I can leave the store to-day,” replied Ellis.  “Let me see:  have I any thing in the way of a note to take up?  I believe not.”

“You say yes, then?”

“I don’t know about that.  It doesn’t just seem right.”

“Nonsense!  It is wonderful how this business atmosphere does affect a man’s perceptions!  He can see nothing but the dollar.  Every thing is brought down to a money valuation.”

We will not trace the argument further.  Enough that the tempter was successful, and that Ellis, instead of going to his store, rode out with Carlton.

He was not, of course, home at his usual dinner-hour.  It was between three and four o’clock when he appeared at his place of business, the worse for his absence, in almost every sense of the word.  He had been drinking, until he was half stupid, and was a loser at the gaming-table of nearly six hundred dollars.  A feeble effort was made by him to go into an examination of the business of the day; but he found it impossible to fix his mind thereon, and so gave up the attempt.  He remained at his store until ready to close up for the day, and then turned his steps homeward.