Read "Living too Fast" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I HAD apparently deceived my wife as far as it was possible for me to do so. If I told her the truth, would she not spurn me, cast me out and despise me? How could she do less? She was innocent, she was true, she was beautiful; and I was afraid of her. Many and many a time had I cursed my folly and wickedness in departing, even for a moment, from the straight path of rectitude. I wondered that I had been able to delude myself into the belief that taking even a few hundred dollars for a brief period was not a crime.
Be warned, O young man, against the _first_ wrong step. While you cheat others, you are the greatest dupe yourself.