76

MEMOIRS OF JOSEPH OBIMAIJDI.

hours. There was no news respecting the money, which he
longed to appropriate to his own use ; so he put it carefully by,
determining of course to abstain rigidly from doing so, and to
use all possible means to discover the owner.

He did not forget the advice of Miss Hughes in the hurry
and excitement consequent upon his morning's adventure, but
wrote another epistle to the father, recapitulating the substance
of a former letter, and hegged to be favoured with a reply.

Having despatched this to the post-office, he devoted the
remainder of the day to a serious consideration of the line of
action it would be most proper to adopt with regard to the five*
hundred and ninety-nine pounds so suddenly acquired. Even-
tually, he resolved to consult an old and esteemed friend of his
father's, upon whose judgment he knew he might depend, and
whose best advice he felt satisfied he could command.

This determination he carried into execution that same
evening; and after a long conversation with the gentleman in
question, during which he met all the young man's natural and
probably apparent inclination to apply the money to his own
occasions and views with arguments and remarks which were
wholly unanswerable, he submitted to be guided by him, and
acted accordingly.

For a whole week the two friends carefully examined every
paper which was published in London, if not in the hope, at
least in the expectation, of seeing the loss advertised; but,
strange as it may seem, nothing of the kind appeared. At the
end of the period named, an advertisement, of which the fol-
lowing is a copy, (their joint production,) appeared in the daily
papers:—

" Found by a gentleman rathe streets of London, some money,
whifih will be restored to the owner upon his giving a satisfac-
tory account of the manner of its loss, its amount, the numbers
of the notes, &c, &c."

To this was appended a full and particular address : but, not-ed home between seven and eight o'clock, where,