privilege
and then throwing her down in this unexpected manner, appeared for the
first time inexplicable.

But greatest of all triumphs from this thinking was that Adelle began to
look upon life objectively, trying to see what it must mean to
others--to her new cousin, who evidently had had his own ambitions,
which had been thwarted by a fate that he could not surmount alone.
Would he do better with the money than she had? Achieve happiness more
lastingly? She began to doubt the power of money to give happiness. She
was losing faith in magic lamps. Of course, if Adelle had profited by
her Puritan ancestry, she would have known that all this kind of
reasoning was useless; for she had no business to assume the part of
Providence to the stone mason and deprive him of his own choice in the
matter of the inheritance. But fortunately she was not given to the
picking of moral bones. She said to herself positively that Tom Clark,
whatever he might once have become under other conditions, would not
know now what to do with money: he would merely "get into trouble with
it," as Archie had got into trouble. Already he had the habit of going
off on "vacations" like the past week, for which he seemed ashamed.

And there were other lives than his to be considered--hers and Archie's,
though she did not give much thought to them. But there was her boy's
future. He had been Adelle's other great education. She had studied him
from the hour he was born and noted each tiny, trivial development of
his character. Already she knew that he was gay and pleasure-loving by
nature--had a curling, sensuous lip much like his father's. She felt
that he would need a great deal of guidance and care if he were to
arrive safely at man's estate. Of course, it was often said that the
struggle of poverty was the way of salvation. But she was not convinced
of this heroic creed. All the more if the little fellow should really
develop weakness; for wealth covered up and prevented the more dreadful
aspects of incompetence. No, she could never bring herself to deprive
her boy of his inheritance. She thought that this was the deciding
consideration in her resolve finally to keep her secret to herself. It
was a large reason, no doubt. But the decision came rather from her old
habit of letting fate work with her as it would; that passive acceptance
of whatever happened which had always been her characteristic attitude
towards life. She had an almost superstitious