oing well,
and living in expectation of doing still better.

Among those who had prospered by the rise in real estate was a Mrs.
Marston, who owned one of the finest residences in Roseland. At the time
that she enters our story her age was about forty and she had a son who
was twenty years old, a month before he left for Paris, and he had been
gone away four months. Why he had gone to Paris, the stories concerning
his mission to that gay city did not quite harmonize. His father came to
the conclusion ten years ago that his mother was too much like himself,
in being a positive, dominant character; that she was a little too
masculine in her makeup, and he thought he would prefer a lady for a
wife who did not weigh quite as much, and one that was a little sweeter
in disposition, and more playful. When he reflected that he was worth
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, he thought that some of the joys
of having a sweet wife should be his, and particularly when he had seen
Josephine Stearns, whom he thought would more than meet his most
sanguine expectations, for to his mind, she seemed to possess all those
very desirable qualities of disposition which he so much admired. In a
very indirect way he made his mind known to Mrs. Marston, who pretended
she did not like such a proposition, but if he would give her fifty
thousand dollars and let her have the boy, she would consent to a
divorce. Her husband thought it over in this way. He said, "I am not
happy in living with my wife, don't like my home at all, and what good
does it do a man to be worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, if
he is not enjoying some of the greatest pleasures in life. Better have
only a hundred thousand dollars with a pretty sweet young lady like
Josephine, than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars with my present
wife." Next morning he scratched his head, and said in a slow kind of a
way, "I think fifty thousand dollars rather steep, but I do not wish to
have any fuss or quibbling, and you can have the boy, and I will give
you twenty-five thousand dollars in cash, and twenty-five thousand in
real estate," which she accepted. To look at her you could not tell what
her feelings were, but way down deep in her heart she was overflowing
with gladness to think she was free.

The rise in real estate made her worth in all as much as her husband was
when he left her. She was known in Roseland as being a lady that was
fond of young people's company, and