Thoughtless people blamed me for sending the young man to prison, and said I might just as well have forgiven him, seeing that the trifling sum of money I had lost by his breach of trust was barely as much as ten pounds.

Of course, personally speaking, I would much rather not have gone into court; but I considered that my duty to society in general, and to my brother merchants in particular, absolutely compelled me to prosecute for the sake of example.

I acted on that principle, and I don't regret that I did so.

The circumstances under which the man robbed me were particularly disgraceful.

He was a hardened reprobate, sir, if ever there was one yet; and I believe, in my conscience, that he wanted nothing but the opportunity to be as great a villain as Fauntleroy himself." At the moment when Mr.Wendell personified his idea of consummate villainy by quoting the example of Fauntleroy, I saw the other middle-aged gentleman--Mr.Trowbridge--color up on a sudden, and begin to fidget in his chair.
"The next time you want to produce an instance of a villain, sir," said Mr.Trowbridge, "I wish you could contrive to quote some other example than Fauntleroy." Mr.Wendell naturally enough looked excessively astonished when he heard these words, which were very firmly and, at the same time, very politely addressed to him.
"May I inquire why you object to my example ?" he asked.
"I object to it, sir," said Mr.Trowbridge, "because it makes me very uncomfortable to hear Fauntleroy called a villain." "Good heavens above!" exclaimed Mr.Wendell, utterly bewildered.
"Uncomfortable!--you, a mercantile man like myself--you, whose character stands so high everywhere--you uncomfortable when you hear a man who was hanged for forgery called a villain! In the name of wonder, why ?" "Because," answered Mr.Trowbridge, with perfect composure, "Fauntleroy was a friend of mine." "Excuse me, my dear sir," retorted Mr.Wendell, in as polished a tone of sarcasm as he could command; "but of all the friends whom you have made in the course of your useful and honorable career, I should have thought the friend you have just mentioned would have been the very last to whom you were likely to refer in respectable society, at least by name." "Fauntleroy committed an unpardonable crime, and died a disgraceful death," said Mr.Trowbridge.