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Updated: May 10, 2025
"Have you seven hundred dollars more than you want to-day?" he asked, in a tone that betrayed his unwillingness to ask the favour, although he strove to appear indifferent. "I have, and it's at your service," was promptly and cheerfully replied. "Shall I fill you a check?" "If you please," said Grasper; "I have a very heavy payment to make to-day, and find money tighter than usual.
He was unhappy until he could replace the money he had borrowed, which was in a day or two, and even then he still felt very uncomfortable. After this, Grasper of course was frequently driven to the necessity of getting temporary loans from Layton, which were always made in a way which showed that it gave his neighbour real pleasure to accommodate him.
Grasper had never felt so wretched in all his life. After two or three efforts to speak, he at last found voice enough to say "Mr. Layton, I have very bad news to tell you. It is impossible for me to go on any longer. I shall stop to-morrow, inevitably. I owe you two thousand dollars in borrowed money and two thousand in notes, making, in all, four thousand dollars.
Layton sighed, and stood silent for some time. "Will that suit you?" said Grasper. "I am afraid not. I have never asked for an endorser in my life, and do not know any one who would be willing to go on my paper." "Well, just as you like. I shall not give up the certainty of a present legal process, for bits of paper with your name on them, you may depend upon it."
"I am very sorry, but it can't be helped now," said Grasper, looking a little confused. "I only took the ordinary method of securing my own. If I had not taken care of myself, somebody would have come in and swept the whole. You know you couldn't possibly have stood it much longer." "If you think it right, Mr. Grasper, I have nothing now to say," returned Layton.
I am ready to try again, and, it may be, that success will crown my efforts. If so, you have the pledge of an honest man, that every dollar of present deficit shall be made up. Can I say more?" Fortunately for Layton, there was no Grasper among the unsatisfied portion of his creditors. He was pitied more than censured. Every man said "no" to the proposition to surrender up his household furniture.
The poor debtor sighed again, and more heavily than before. "If you go on with your suit against me, Mr. Grasper, you will entirely break me up," said he, anxiously. "That's your look-out, not mine. I want nothing but justice what the law gives to every man. You have property enough to pay my claim; the law will adjudge it to me, and I will take it. Have you any right to complain?"
At first, in making bills with Layton, he always made it a point to cash them. But this soon became inconvenient, and he was forced to say, in making a pretty heavy purchase "I shall have to give my note for this." "Just as you please, Mr. Grasper, it is all the same to me," replied Layton, indifferently. "I had as lief have your note as your money." Grasper felt his cheek burn.
This was worse to Grasper than if he had come out and said over and over again just what he thought of the other's conduct. Five years from the day Layton commenced business anew, he made his last dividend upon the deficit that stood against him at the time his creditors generously released him and set him once more upon his feet.
"It won't do," he said to himself, "to let him lose any thing. I should never be able to look him in the face again, after what has happened between us. No no I must see him safe." On the next day, Grasper called in to see Layton. His face was serious. "Can I say a word to you alone?" he asked. "Certainly," and the two men retired to a private part of the store.
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