to him whatever. The
arrangements were all made for the issue of stock and the commencement
of operations, and when, three days afterward, he started from
Titusville on his way home, he had in his satchel blank certificates of
stock, all signed by the officers of the Continental Petroleum Company,
to be limited in its issue to the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. He never expected to see the land again. He did not expect that
the enterprise would be of the slightest value to those who should
invest in it. He expected to do just what others were doing--to sell his
stock and pocket the proceeds, while investors pocketed their losses. It
was all an acute business operation with him; and he intended to take
advantage of the excitement of the time to "clean out" Sevenoaks and all
the region round about his country home, while his confreres operated in
their own localities. He chuckled over his plans as if he contemplated
some great, good deed that would be of incalculable benefit to his
neighbors. He suffered no qualm of conscience, no revolt of personal
honor, no spasm of sympathy or pity.

As soon as he set out upon his journey homeward he began to think of his
New York purchase. He had taken a bold step, and he wished that he had
said something to Mrs. Belcher about his plans, but he had been so much
in the habit of managing everything in his business without consulting
her, that it did not occur to him before he started from home that any
matter of his was not exclusively his own. He would just as soon have
thought of taking Phipps into his confidence, or of deferring to his
wishes in any project, as of extending those courtesies to his wife.
There was another consideration which weighed somewhat heavily upon his
mind. He was not entirely sure that he would not be ashamed of Mrs.
Belcher in the grand home which he had provided for himself. He
respected her, and had loved her in his poor, sensual fashion, some
changeful years in the past; he had regarded her as a good mother, and,
at least, as an inoffensive wife; but she was not Mrs. Dillingham. She
would not be at home in the society of which he had caught a glimpse,
or among the splendors to which he would be obliged to introduce her.
Even Talbot, the man who was getting rich upon the products of his
enterprise, had a more impressive wife than he. And thus, with much
reflection, this strange, easy-natured brute without a conscience,
wrought up his soul i