36 The Illumination of Joseph Keeler, Esq. 



become involved more or less in the real estate transactions^ 

 which had stimulated as well as followed the phenomenal in- 

 crease of a city which had grown 81 per cent in the ten years of 

 the census, or from 208,000 to 376,000. Indeed, he had become 

 one of a syndicate formed a year or two previous to exploit a 

 suburban farm, lending especially his family name as a guarantee 

 of stability, but, nevertheless, taking many shares, which were 

 to be paid for out of profits from the sale of lots in the rapid 

 turnover expected. Unfortunately the purchase had been made 

 at too high figures, the extension of the radial railway, which 

 from inside information was to boom the price, had not mate- 

 rialised and just now the young lawyer was finding it extremely 

 difficult to obtain money to meet the "calls," since his income 

 as a junior member of the law firm was not large, while his club 

 expenses, always nearly even with his income, did not allow 

 him much ready cash wherewith to meet such extra demands. 

 But what was more unfortunate was that John Keeler had con- 

 tracted a habit. His former occasional seances at a cent-a-point 

 had now become a nightly occupation and the betting at bridge 

 became heavy in a certain clique of which he was one, while his 

 needs were making him plunge more deeply, the nervous ten- 

 sion preventing him from maintaining the sang-froid and de- 

 veloping the touche erudite of the experienced gambler. It was 

 not to be supposed that the increasing irregularities of the 

 young man, his restlessness and irritability, could very long 

 escape the acute observation of his father, who, while making 

 every allowance for him as a young man, understood too well 

 that all such effects had their legitimate cause. Casual hints that 

 better hours and more regular attention to business would seem 

 desirable had been met with scant respect, and, while seeming 

 to result in some temporary improvement, matters soon drifted 

 back into the old routine, and Mr. Joseph Keeler was soon to 

 have the unfortunate fact brought home to him that ancestral 

 advantages of birth and good breeding, never, since the days 

 when the Judges ruled Israel and the Scriptures were written, 

 have been a guarantee against moral laches and improprieties 

 of conduct, since we find it written, regarding the sons of Sam- 

 uel the prophet, "And his sons walked not in his ways but 

 turned aside after lucre and took bribes and preverted judg- 

 ments." 



