Opening a Chestnut Burr | Page 6

liberal- minded man of the
world must of necessity outgrow these things. With the self-deception
of his kind, he thought he was broad and liberal in his views, when in
reality he had lost all distinction between truth and error, and was
narrowing his mind down to things only. Jew or Gentile, Christian or
Pagan, it was becoming all one to him. Men changed their creeds and
religions with other fashions, but all looked after what they believed to
be the main chance, and he proposed to do the same.
As time passed on, however, he began to admit to himself that it was
strange that in making all things bend to his pleasure he did not secure
more. He wearied of certain things. Stronger excitements were needed
to spur his jaded senses. His bets, his stakes at cards grew heavier, his
pleasures more gross, till a delicate organization so revolted at its
wrongs and so chastised him for excess that he was deterred from
self-gratification in that direction.
Some men's bodies are a "means of grace" to them. Coarse dissipation
is a physical impossibility, or swift suicide in a very painful form.
Young Gregory found that only in the excitements of the mind could he
hope to find continued enjoyment. His ambition to accumulate wealth
and become a brilliant business man most accorded with his tastes and
training, and on these objects he gradually concentrated all his energies,
seeking only in club-rooms and places of fashionable resort recreation
from the strain of business.
He recognized that the best way to advance his own interests was to
serve his employers well; and this he did so effectually that at last he
was made a partner in the business, and, with a sense of something
more like pleasure than he had known for a long time, returned to New
York and entered upon his new duties.
As we have said, among those who warmly greeted and congratulated
him, was Mr. Hunting. They gradually came to spend much time
together, and business and money-getting were their favorite themes.
Gregory saw that his friend was as keen on the track of fortune as

himself, and that he had apparently been much more successful. Mr.
Hunting intimated that after one reached the charmed inner circle Wall
Street was a perfect Eldorado, and seemed to take pains to drop
occasional suggestions as to how an investment shrewdly made by one
with his favored point of observation often secured in a day a larger
return than a year of plodding business.
These remarks were not lost on Gregory, and the wish became very
strong that he might share in some of the splendid "hits" by which his
friend was accumulating so rapidly.
Usually Mr. Hunting was very quiet and self-possessed, but one
evening in May he came into Gregory's rooms in a manner indicating
not a little excitement and elation.
"Gregory!" he exclaimed, "I am going to make my fortune."
"Make your fortune! You are as rich as Croesus now."
"The past will be as nothing. I've struck a mine rather than a vein."
"It's a pity some of your friends could not share in your luck."
"Well, a few can. This is so large, and such a good thing, that I have
concluded to let a few intimates go in with me. Only all must keep very
quiet about it;" and he proposed an operation that seemed certain of
success as he explained it.
Gregory concluded to put into it nearly all he had independent of his
investment in the firm, and also obtained permission to interest his
partners, and to procure an interview between them and Mr. Hunting.
The scheme looked so very plausible that they were drawn into it also;
but Mr. Burnett took Gregory aside and said: "After all, we must place
a great deal of confidence in Mr. Hunting's word in this matter. Are you
satisfied that we can safely do so?"
"I would stake my life on his word in this case," said Gregory, eagerly,

"and I pledge all I have put in the firm on his truth."
This was the last flicker of his old enthusiasm and trust in anybody or
anything, including himself. With almost the skill of genius Mr.
Hunting adroitly, within the limits of the law, swindled them all, and
made a vast profit out of their losses. The transaction was not generally
known, but even some of the hardened gamblers of the street said "it
was too bad."
But the bank-officers with whom Burnett & Co. did business knew
about it, and if it had not been for their lenience and aid the firm would
have failed. As it was, it required a struggle of months to regain the
solid ground of safety.
At first the firm