iet content, and of nurturing comfort. The
furnace was equipped with the latest automatic devices so that it had to
be started only once a year. It was then left to the care of my mother,
who used to give it only a few minutes' attention every day without
going to the trouble of divesting herself of the gown of fine white lawn
which she always wore."

"My dear fellow," I could not keep from exclaiming, "you have almost
explained yourself. In such surroundings how could you help growing up
into what you are?"

"That is what I say, sir," he came back at me eagerly. "But you must
call to mind, also, the fostering personal care that was bestowed upon
us children. Take the matter of diet. Coffee, cocoa, excessive sweets,
every food-element tending to narcotise or over-stimulate the system was
rigorously excluded. Instead we had the numerous grain preparations that
assist nature by contributing directly to the development of our
particular faculties. In my case, for instance, it had been decided some
time before I was born that in the course of time I should enter West
Point. With that end in view Farinette, because of its muscle-building
powers, was made the principal constituent of my bill of fare. Later,
when my parents thought that the pulpit offered better chances of a
successful career, Farinette was replaced by Panema, which is notably
efficacious in the production of cerebral tissue. Just as I was taking
my examinations for college it was finally determined that the sphere of
corporation finance held out unrivalled facilities for advancement, and
Panema gave way to Hydronuxia, which acts particularly on the
imaginative faculties. As for my sisters, they fared no worse than I.
You surely have seen them in the Advertising Pages in all their splendid
bloom. Saved from overwork by soaps that make heavy washing a pleasure,
eternally youthful through the use of electric massage, they smile at
you through the reticulations of the tennis racket which the champion
played with at Newport, or recline under parasols in the bow of canoes
that will neither sink nor upset. They are very fond of playing Chopin
on a mechanical piano while the moonlight streams over the floor of the
open veranda."

Here Harding broke in sharply. "You began by differing with me on the
possibility of finding complete happiness in life, and you have done
nothing but refute your own position from the very first. I admit there
are certain essentials towa