54 The Illumination of Joseph Keeler, Esq. 



coming to light, coupled with his failure to meet payments on 

 "calls" for stock held by him. As solicitor and secretary of the 

 company he had frequently received small payments from pur- 

 chasers of lots to be sent to the treasurer; but when losses at cards 

 had occurred, he had for the moment used these sums, intending 

 of course to turn them in next day. Such, however, had now 

 grown into a considerable sum, and it became inevitable that the 

 time for accounting must soon come. His associates even, some 

 of equivocal commercial morality themselves, knowing of his 

 club scandal and his more irregular habits could no longer for 

 their own safety delay action. So it came about that at the 

 semi-annual directors' meeting the amounts of the outstanding 

 accounts of John Keeler in the matter of stock payments and 

 moneys received came up for consideration along with others. 

 With characteristic insouciance, he made his defence, urging that 

 others were behind in stock payments as well, and that the extra 

 legal work placed upon him more than made up for the seeming 

 irregularities. The booming of land sales had, however, latterly 

 fallen flat, and the directors were in no mood to accept excuses 

 for these easy-going methods, since they were sadly in need of 

 funds for payments due on the farm purchased. Young 

 Keeler's irritating attitude of superiority only made matters 

 worse, until at length after high words, a resolution was passed 

 "Requiring that an accounting be made within one month of all 

 moneys received by him as solicitor and that if these were not 

 paid as well as all payments on stock overdue, legal action would 

 be taken against him by the company. Meanwhile the solici- 

 tor's work was to be done elsewhere." The resolution was 

 passed not without a sense of indecency on the part of some of 

 the Board, since they had especially counted on the social stand- 

 ing of the son of Joseph Keeler, Esq., and on the prominence of 

 the father in large business affairs to give their company a finan- 

 cial standing. But the human selfishness in business, as else- 

 where, and the sauve qui peut of the speculator have no delicacy 

 of sentiment and the inexperienced young solicitor, who had 

 worn so superior an air, was now to suffer an injury to his pride, 

 which for him was infinitely more intense than any sense of un- 

 fortunate personal habits had as yet produced in him. Its im- 



