med a most desirable
neighborhood.

The Apollo was really a very imposing and towering affair, with onyx and
gilded halls. The elevator that fairly shot us skyward when we ascended
to our eerie nest ten stories above the street, and was a boundless joy
to the Precious Ones, who would gladly have made their playhouse in the
gaudy little car with the brown boy in blue and brass. Our fine
belongings looked grand in the new suite, and our rugs on the inlaid and
polished floor were luxurious and elegant. Compared with this, much of
our past seemed squalid and a period to be forgotten. Ann, who was still
with us, put on a white cap and apron at meal-times, and to answer the
bell, though the cap had a habit of getting over one ear, while the
apron remained white with difficulty.

The janitor of the Apollo was quite as imposing as the house itself,--a
fallen nobleman, in fact, though by no means fallen so far as most of
those whose possibilities of decline had been immeasurably less. He was
stately and uplifting in his demeanor. So much so that I found myself
unconsciously imitating his high-born manner and mode of speech. I had a
feeling that he was altogether more at home in the place than we were,
but I hoped this would pass. Whatever the cost, we were determined to
live up to the Apollo and its titled _Charge d'Affaires_.

And now came exciting days. The Stock continued to advance, as our
friend had prophesied. Some days it went up one point, some days two.
Every point meant a hundred dollars' clear profit. One day it advanced
five full points. We only counted full points. Fractional advances we
threw into the next day's good measure, and set the stop-loss higher,
and yet ever higher.

We acquired credit with ourselves. We began to think that perhaps after
all we hadn't taken quite so good an apartment as we deserved. What was
a matter of a thousand dollars more or less on a year's rent when the
Stock was yielding a profit of a hundred or two dollars a day. We
repeated that it was easy enough now to understand how New Yorkers got
rich, and could afford the luxuries heretofore regarded by us with a
wonderment that was akin to awe. I began to have a vague notion of
abandoning other pursuits and going into stocks, altogether. We even
talked of owning our own home on Fifth Avenue. Still we were quite
prudent, as was our custom. I did not go definitely into stocks, and we
remained with the fallen nobleman in the Apollo. Neit