Having one day been set by his master to repair for an
old lady an escritoire which had been in her possession for a
long time, he came to her house in the evening with a five-pound
note of a country bank, which he had found in a secret drawer of
the same, handing it to her with the remark that he had always
found honesty the best policy. She gave him half a sovereign, and
he took his leave well satisfied. _He had been first to make
inquiry, and had learned that the bank stopped payment many years
ago._ I can not help wondering, curious in the statistics of
honesty, how many of my readers will be more amused than
disgusted with the story. It is a great thing to come of decent
people, and Ferdinand Goldberg Redmain must not be judged like
one who, of honorable parentage, whether noble or peasant, takes
himself across to the shady side of the road. Much had been
against Redmain. I do not know of what sort his mother was, but
from certain embryonic virtues in him, which could hardly have
been his father's, I should think she must have been better than
her husband. She died, however, while he was a mere child; and
his father married, some said did not _marry_ again. The boy
was sent to a certain public school, which at that time, whatever
it may or may not be now, was simply a hot-bed of the lowest
vices, and in devil-matters Redmain was an apt pupil.
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