who opposed it were hammering, and
throttling and flinging mud, in as wild an effort to check and
demoralize and destroy. At the time, however, we caught only the echo of
these things, and believed as did our friend on the exchange, that a
great capitalist was in control of Calfskin Common and would send it to
par.

Only we wished he would send it faster. We did not like to fool along
this way, an eighth up and an eighth, or a quarter down, and all
uncertainty and tension. Besides, we needed our accruing profits to meet
our heavily increased expenses which were by no means easy to dispose of
with our normal income, improved though it was with time and tireless
effort.

Indeed, most of the eighths and quarters presently seemed to be in the
wrong direction. It was no fun to lose even twelve dollars and a half a
day and keep it up. The Presence in the household was in delicate
health. It needed to be coddled and pampered, and the strain of it told
on us. The Little Woman developed an anxious look, and grew nervous and
feverish at the clamor of an "extra." Sometimes I heard her talking
"plus" and "minus" and "points" in her sleep and knew that she had taken
the Stock to bed with her.

The memory of our old quiet life in the Sunshine and Monte Cristo began
to grow in sweetness beside this sordid and gilded existence in the
Apollo. The massive portals and towering masonry which at first had been
as a solid foundation for genuine respectability began to seem gloomy
and overpowering, and lacking in the true home spirit we had found
elsewhere. The smartly dressed and mannered people who rode up and down
with us on the elevator did not seem quite genuine, and their
complexions were not always real. It may have been the condition of the
Stock that disheartened us and made their lives as well as ours seem
artificial. I don't know. I only know that I began to have a dim feeling
that we would have been happier if we had been satisfied with our
oriental rugs and antique furniture, and the remnant of the Sum, without
the acquaintance of the Stock and the fallen nobleman below stairs. But,
as I have said, all things have their place and value, I suppose, and
our regrets, if they were that, have long since been dissipated, with
the things that made them possible.

Quickly, as they had come, they passed, and were not. I was working
busily one morning in my south front study when the Little Woman entered
hurriedly. It was late April a