“Just in time,” said the latter.  “I’ve been waiting for you over half an hour.”

“I dined later to-day than usual,” returned Wilkinson.

“I wanted to settle my bill, but there were two or three items which your clerk could not explain.  So I concluded to let the matter stand over until I was in the city again, which will be in the course of a few weeks.  However, as you are here, we will arrange it now.”

So the two men walked back to the desk upon which lay Wilkinson’s account books.  The customer’s bill was referred to, and one or two slight discrepancies reconciled.  The amount of it was nearly two hundred dollars.

“You will take off five per cent. for cash, I presume?”

“Certainly,” replied Wilkinson.

The money was paid down.

“So much for not stopping on the way to business for a glass of brandy.”

This thought was spontaneous in the mind of Wilkinson.  After his customer had left, he fell into a musing state, in which many thoughts were presented, that, from the pain and self-condemnation they occasioned, he tried to push from his mind.  But he was not able to do this.  Much of the history of his daily life for the past few years presented itself, and, in reviewing it, many things stood out in bold relief, which were before regarded as of little moment.  Not until now did he clearly see the dangerous position in which he stood.

“So near the brink of ruin!” he sighed.  “I knew the path to be a dangerous one; I knew that other feet had slipped; but felt secure in my own strength.  Ah! that strength was weakness itself.  I a drunkard!” He shuddered as the thought presented itself.  “And Mary, the hopeless, brokenhearted wife of one lost to every ennobling sentiment of the human mind!  It is awful to think of it!”

Wilkinson was deeply disturbed.  For some time longer his mind dwelt on this theme:  then, in the depths of his own thoughts, and in the presence of Heaven, he resolved to be in safety, by avoiding the path of danger; to put forever from his lips the cup from which he had so often drank confusion.

Suddenly he appeared to be lifted above the level he had occupied, into a region whose atmosphere was purer, and to a position from which he saw things in new relations.  It was only then that he fully comprehended the real danger from which he had escaped.

“And my wife has saved me!” was the involuntary acknowledgment of his heart.

The rest of the afternoon was spent by Wilkinson in a careful investigation of his affairs.  He ascertained the entire amount he would have to pay in the coming six months, and also his probable resources during the time.  The result was very discouraging.  But for the sum lost to Carlton he would have seen all clear; but the abstraction of so much lessened his available means, and would so clog the wheels of his business as to make all progress exceedingly difficult.