rthy of a Christian--I believe I should have
taken my walking-cane, and given him a sound thrashing."

Rufus neither expressed surprise nor offered advice. He was lost in
meditation on the wealth of Mr. Farnaby. "A stationer's business seems
to eventuate in a lively profit, in this country," he said.

"A stationer's business?" Amelius repeated disdainfully. "Farnaby has
half a dozen irons in the fire besides that. He's got a newspaper, and a
patent medicine, and a new bank, and I don't know what else. One of his
own friends said to me, 'Nobody knows whether Farnaby is rich or poor;
he is going to do one of two things--he is going to die worth millions,
or to die bankrupt.' Oh, if I can only live to see the day when
Socialism will put that sort of man in his right place!"

"Try a republic, on our model, first," said Rufus. "When Farnaby talks
of the style his young woman is accustomed to live in, what does he
mean?"

"He means," Amelius answered smartly, "a carriage to drive out in,
champagne on the table, and a footman to answer the door."

"Farnaby's ideas, sir, have crossed the water and landed in New York,"
Rufus remarked. "Well, and what did you say to him, on your side?"

"I gave it to him, I can tell you! 'That's all ostentation,' I said.
'Why can't Regina and I begin life modestly? What do we want with a
carriage to drive out in, and champagne on the table, and a footman
to answer the door? We want to love each other and be happy. There
are thousands of as good gentlemen as I am, in England, with wives
and families, who would ask for nothing better than an income of five
hundred a year. The fact is, Mr. Farnaby, you're positively saturated
with the love of money. Get your New Testament and read what Christ
says of rich people.' What do you think he did, when I put it in that
unanswerable way? He held up his hand, and looked horrified. 'I can't
allow profanity in my office,' says he. 'I have my New Testament read to
me in church, sir, every Sunday.' That's the sort of Christian, Rufus,
who is the average product of modern times! He was as obstinate as a
mule; he wouldn't give way a single inch. His adopted daughter, he said,
was accustomed to live in a certain style. In that same style she should
live when she was married, so long as he had a voice in the matter.
Of course, if she chose to set his wishes and feelings at defiance, in
return for all that he had done for her, she was old enough to take her
own