y, and
during these weeks the manager himself set up a neat and modest
brougham.

All of which events, only partially understood, Mr. Philip Burnett
revolved in his mind, and wondered if what was called success was worth
the price paid for it.

VII

The name of Thomas Mavick has lost the prominence and significance it
had at the time the events recorded in this history were taking place.
It seems incredible that the public should so soon have lost interest in
him. His position in the country was most conspicuous. No name was more
frequently in the newspapers. No other person not in official life was
so often interviewed. The reporters instinctively turned to him for
information in matters financial, concerning deals, and commercial,
which were so commonly connected with political, enterprises. No loan
was negotiated without consulting him, no operation was considered safe
without knowing how he was affected towards it, and to ascertain what
Mavick was doing or thinking was a constant anxiety in the Street. Of
course the opinion of a man so powerful was very important in politics,
and any church or sect would be glad to have his support. The fact that
he and his family worshiped regularly at St. Agnes's was a guarantee of
the stability of that church, and incidentally marked the success of the
Christian religion in the metropolis.

But the condition of the presence in the public mind of the name of a
great operator and accumulator of money who is merely that is either
that he go on accumulating, so that the magnitude of his wealth has few
if any rivals, or that his name become synonymous with some gigantic
cleverness, if not rascality, so that it is used as an adjective after
he and his wealth have disappeared from the public view. It is different
with the reputation of an equally great financier who has used his
ability for the service of his country. There is no Valhalla for the
mere accumulators of money. They are fortunate if their names are
forgotten, and not remembered as illustrations of colossal selfishness.

Mavick may have been the ideal of many a self-made man, but he did
not make his fortune--he married it. And it was suspected that the
circumstances attending that marriage put him in complete control of it.
He came into possession, however, with cultivated shrewdness and tact
and large knowledge of the world, the world of diplomacy as well as of
business. And under his manipulation the vast fortu