Venetian blinds are of an emerald green, and the
plate-glass windows mirror the parched trees in the square, and reflect
back the almost equally picturesque jaunting-cars as they drive past;
the balcony, too, throughout its whole length, is covered with rich
flowers and flowery shrubs. In a word, there is a look of preparation
that bespeaks a coming event. What can it be?

Various rumors are afloat as to the reason of these changes, some
averring that Mr. Dunn is about to take a high official position, and be
raised to a distinguished rank; others opine that he is about to retire
from the cares of a business life, and marry. What may he not be? Whom
may he not aspire to? Surely the world has gone well with this roan.
What a great general is to an army in the field,--what a great leader to
a party in the "House," was he to every industrial enterprise. His name
was a guarantee for all that was accurate in discipline and perfect in
organization. The Board over which he presided as Chairman was sure to
meet with regularity and act with energy. The officials who served under
him, even to the very humblest, seemed to typify the wise principles by
which he had himself been guided in life. They appeared as though imbued
with the same patient industry; the same untiring application, the same
grave demeanor marked them. "I served under Mr. Davenport Dunn," "Mr.
Dunn knows me," "Mr. Dunn will speak for me," were characters that had
the force of a diploma, since they vouched not alone for capacity, but
for conduct.

It is a very high eminence to attain when a man's integrity and ability
throw such a light about him that they illumine not alone the path he
treads in life, but shine brightly on those who follow his track, making
an atmosphere in which all around participate. To this height had Dunn
arrived, and he stood the confessed representative of those virtues
Englishmen like to honor, and that character they boast to believe
national,--the man of successful industry. The fewer the adventitious
advantages he derived from fortune, the greater and more worthy did he
appear. He was no aristocrat, propped and bolstered by grand relatives.
He had no Most Noble or Right Honorable connections to push him. He was
not even gifted with those qualities that win popular favor,--he had
none of those graces of easy cordiality that others possess,--he was
not insinuating in address, nor ready of speech. They who described him
called him an a