78                      THE  OLD MERCHAATTS
 

CHAPTER X.

Some strange coincidences occur occasionally. This
day week, the author took his pen in hand, (Tuesday
morning last) to write the ninth chapter of this book.
Little did he dream, when he was writing about Gran¬
ville Sharp Oldfield, formerly of the firm of Oldfield,
Bernard & Co., that then, on that very day, within an
hour of his writing, he, Mr. Oldfield, was dying in the
lunatic asylum at Baltimore.    So it was.

Mr. Oldfield, as we mentioned last week, became in¬
sane some time ago, and yet he signed checks until
within a few days of his death, when he became un¬
conscious of what was passing around him, and last
Tuesday, the 8d of July, quietly died. About checks
he was eccentric. Whenever he drew one In his pros¬
perous days, it was made payable to " order, " and he
never failed to accompany the person to whom he gave
the check, to the bank, and see it paid.

Now that he Is dead, all his faults will be burled with
him. He had two children •— a son and a daughter.
He believed as many fathers in England do, that chil¬
dren should obey parents in all things — even In the
matter of marrying. That a father of standing should
select a wife for his son, and a husband for a daughter,