ection of
her husband was removed by the hand of a medical prodigy who advertised
himself as the discoverer of a new and infallible cure for cancer, and
whom Mrs. Marrineal, with an instinctive leaning toward quackery, had
forced upon her spouse. Appraising his prospective widow with an
accurate eye, the dying man left a testament bestowing the bulk of his
fortune upon his son, with a few heavy income-producing properties for
Mrs. Marrineal. Tertius Marrineal was devoted to his mother, with a
jealous, pitying, and protective affection. This is popularly approved
as the infallible mark of a good man. Tertius Marrineal was not a good
man.

Nor was there any particular reason why he should be. Boys who have a
business pirate for father, and a weak-minded coddler for mother, seldom
grow into prize exhibits. Young Marrineal did rather better than might
have been expected, thanks to the presence at his birth-cradle of a
robust little good-fairy named Self-Preservation, who never gets half
the credit given to more picturesque but less important gift-bringers.
He grew up with an instinctive sense of when to stop. Sometimes he
stopped inopportunely. He quit several courses of schooling too soon,
because he did not like the unyielding regimen of the institutions.
When, a little, belated, he contrived to gain entrance to a small, old,
and fashionable Eastern college, he was able, or perhaps willing, to go
only halfway through his sophomore year. Two years in world travel with
a well-accredited tutor seemed to offer an effectual and not too
rigorous method of completing the process of mind-formation. Young
Marrineal got a great deal out of that trip, though the result should
perhaps be set down under the E of Experience rather than that of
Erudition. The mentor also acquired experience, but it profited him
little, as he died within the year after the completion of the trip, his
health having been sacrificed in a too conscientious endeavor to keep
even pace with his pupil. Young Marrineal did not suffer in health. He
was a robust specimen. Besides, there was his good and protective fairy
always ready with the flag of warning at the necessary moment.

Launched into the world after the elder Marrineal's death, Tertius
interested himself in sundry of the businesses left by his father.
Though they had been carefully devised and surrounded with safeguards,
the heir managed to break into and improve several of them. The result
was more