ed even that Eustace did
not care to be reminded of the city's day of small things. Perhaps he
had something of the feeling of the successful struggler who tries to
forget the shabbiness of the past. If this were the case, his pride must
have been chafed, for his father was eloquent in displaying the powers
of an uncommonly fine memory; and he had to hear all about the slips,
and the Fly Market, and the gradual extension of the water-front, and
the piles on which the old Tontine was built, and the cucumber-wood
pipes of the old water-company, still lying under their feet. Once, at
least, he showed a genuine enjoyment of his father's discourse, and that
was when it ran on the great retinue of servants in which Jacob Dolph
the elder had indulged himself. I think he was actually pleased when he
heard that his grandfather had at one time kept slaves.

Wandering in this way, to the running accompaniment of Mr. Dolph's
lecture, they came to Water Street, and here, as though he were reminded
of the object of their trip, the father summed up his reminiscences in
shape for a neat moral.

"The city grows, you see, my boy, and we've got to grow with it. I've
stood still; but you sha'n't."

"Well, governor," said the younger man, "I'll be frank with you. I don't
like the prospect."

"You will--you will, my boy. You'll live to thank me."

"Very likely you're right, sir; I don't deny it; but, as I say, I don't
like the prospect. I don't see--with all due respect, sir--how any
gentleman can _like_ trade. It may be necessary, and of course I don't
think it's lowering, or any of that nonsense, you know; but it can't be
_pleasant_. Of course, if _your_ governor had to do it, it was all
right; but I don't believe he liked it any better than I should, or he
wouldn't have been so anxious to keep you out of it."

"My poor father made a great mistake, Eustace. He would admit it now,
I'm sure, if he were alive."

"Well, sir, I'm going to try it, of course. I'll give it a fair trial.
But when the two years are up, sir, as we agreed, I hope you won't say
anything against my going into the law, or--well, yes--" he colored a
little--"trying what I can do on the Street. I know what you think about
it, sir," he went on, hastily; "but there are two sides to the question,
and it's my opinion that, for an intelligent man, there's more money to
be made up there in Wall Street in one year than can be got out of
haggling over merchandise for a lif