tily as she would have bemoaned the demise of the most
insignificant neighbor. After her death, being left childless, he had
nothing to do but to make money, and he naturally made it. Having taken
his primary financial education in New England, he graduated at that
great business university, Chicago, and then entered on the public
practice of wealth in New York.

Aunt Jane had perhaps done injustice to the personal appearance of Mr.
John Lambert. His features were irregular, but not insignificant, and
there was a certain air of slow command about him, which made some
persons call him handsome. He was heavily built, with a large,
well-shaped head, light whiskers tinged with gray, and a sort of dusty
complexion. His face was full of little curved wrinkles, as if it were
a slate just ruled for sums in long division, and his small blue eyes
winked anxiously a dozen different ways, as if they were doing the sums.
He seemed to bristle with memorandum-books, and kept drawing them from
every pocket, to put something down. He was slow of speech, and his very
heaviness of look added to the impression of reserved power about the
man.

All his career in life had been a solid progress, and his boldest
speculations seemed securer than the legitimate business of less potent
financiers. Beginning business life by peddling gingerbread on a railway
train, he had developed such a genius for railway management as some
men show for chess or for virtue; and his accumulating property had the
momentum of a planet.

He had read a good deal at odd times, and had seen a great deal of
men. His private morals were unstained, he was equable and amiable, had
strong good sense, and never got beyond his depth. He had travelled in
Europe and brought home many statistics, some new thoughts, and a few
good pictures selected by his friends. He spent his money liberally for
the things needful to his position, owned a yacht, bred trotting-horses,
and had founded a theological school. He submitted to these and other
social observances from a vague sense of duty as an American citizen;
his real interest lay in business and in politics. Yet he conducted
these two vocations on principles diametrically opposite. In business
he was more honest than the average; in politics he had no conception
of honesty, for he could see no difference between a politician and any
other merchandise. He always succeeded in business, for he thoroughly
understood its principles; i