will--a
fighter. But he was a sensitive child, anxious for approval; not robust,
though spiritual rather than delicate; even in comparative infancy he
cared more for books than toys, and his greatest joy was in being read
to. In spite of these traits--perhaps because of them--there was a
sympathy between us. From the time that he could talk the child seemed to
understand me. Occasionally I surprised him gazing at me with a certain
wistful look that comes back to me as I write.

Moreton, Tom used to call Alexander the Great because he was a fighter
from the cradle, beating his elder brother, too considerate to strike
back, and likewise--when opportunity offered--his sister; and
appropriating their toys. A self-sufficient, doughty young man, with the
round head that withstands many blows, taking by nature to competition
and buccaneering in general. I did not love him half so much as I did
Matthew--if such intermittent emotions as mine may be called love. It was
a standing joke of mine--which Maude strongly resented--that Moreton
resembled Cousin George of Elkington.

Imbued with the highest ambition of my time, I had set my barque on a
great circle, and almost before I realized it the barque was burdened
with a wife and family and the steering had insensibly become more
difficult; for Maude cared nothing about the destination, and when I took
any hand off the wheel our ship showed a tendency to make for a quiet
harbour. Thus the social initiative, which I believed should have been
the woman's, was thrust back on me. It was almost incredible, yet
indisputable, in a day when most American women were credited with a
craving for social ambition that I, of all men, should have married a
wife in whom the craving was wholly absent! She might have had what other
women would have given their souls for. There were many reasons why I
wished her to take what I deemed her proper place in the community as my
wife--not that I cared for what is called society in the narrow sense;
with me, it was a logical part of a broader scheme of life; an auxiliary
rather than an essential, but a needful auxiliary; a means of dignifying
and adorning the position I was taking. Not only that, but I felt the
need of intercourse--of intercourse of a lighter and more convivial
nature with men and women who saw life as I saw it. In the evenings when
we did not go out into that world our city afforded ennui took possession
of me: I had never learned to car