Chapter 34 - Page 2

no suspicions; but
accuracy is the soul of commerce, as profit is its object. Clear accounts,
with reasonable balances, are the surest cements of business intimacies. A
little frankness operates, in a secret trade, like equity in the courts;
which reestablishes the justice that the law has destroyed.--What is thy
purpose?"

"It is now many years, Alderman Van Beverout, since this secret trade was
commenced between you and my predecessor,--he, whom you have thought my
father, but who only claimed that revered appellation by protecting the
helplessness and infancy of the orphan child of a friend."

"The latter circumstance is new to me;" returned the burgher, slowly
bowing his head. "It may explain certain levities which have not been
without their embarrassment. 'Tis five-and-twenty years, come August,
Master Skimmer, and twelve of them have been under thy auspices. I will
not say that the adventures might not have been better managed; as it is,
they are tolerable. I am getting old, and think of closing the risks and
hazards of life--two or three, or, at the most, four or five, lucky
voyages, must, I think, bring a final settlement between us."

"'Twill be made sooner. I believe the history of my predecessor was no
secret to you. The manner in which he was driven from the marine of the
Stuarts, on account of his opposition to tyranny; his refuge with an only
daughter, in the colonies; and his final recourse to the free-trade for a
livelihood, have often been alluded to between us."

"Hum--I have a good memory for business, Master Skimmer, but I am as
forgetful as a new-made lord of his pedigree, on all matters that should
be overlooked. I dare say, however, it was as you have stated."

"You know, that when my protector and predecessor abandoned the land, he
took his all with him upon the water."

"He took a wholesome and good-going schooner, Master Skimmer, with an
assorted freight of chosen tobacco, well ballasted with stones from off
the seashore. He was no foolish admirer of sea-green women, and flaunting
brigantines. Often did the royal cruisers mistake the worthy dealer for an
industrious fisherman!"

"He had his humors, and I have mine. But you forget a part of the freight
he carried;--a part that was not the least valuable."

"There might have been a bale of marten's furs--for the trade was just
getting brisk in that article."

"There was a beautiful, an innocent, and an affectionate girl------"

The Alderman made an involuntary movement which nearly hid his countenance
from his companion.

"There was, indeed, a beautiful, and, as you say, a most