And no doubt prudence suggested a settlement
now when all was going well. But once let the estate slip from his
control, and he would become a comparatively poor man; while the
twenty-nine heirs might squander their money foolishly.
While he was debating the question, it was only proper to keep the money
well invested. And if at the end of the fifth year his securities had
shrunken seriously in value, it was natural to wait another year for
values to become normal. When the crash came, the injury to his vanity
hurt him more than his wounded conscience; that he had learned to
soothe, but his pride had never before been humbled. And so it was said
that Henry Francis died of a broken heart.
His sister Mary, who nine years before had brought back to Pennsylvania
the corpse of the murdered Cummins, was now summoned to carry another
dead man home. True, he lived a year to contemplate the ruin of fortune
and honor, but he was mortally wounded. Most pathetic of all, he was
resolved to suffer in silence. Brothers and sisters should not share in
his disgrace. He had gambled and lost. But he would not tell them that
he had gambled with his honor.
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