f the domestic hearth, and both in
the gayly suggestive and the pensively argumentative key. Why might they
not, by means of a clever purchase in the stock market, occasionally
procure some of the agreeable extra pleasures of life--provide the ready
money for theatres, a larger wardrobe, trips from home, or a modest
equipage? Why not take advantage of the friendly advice given? Mr.
Williams had made clear that the purchase of stocks on a sufficient
margin was no more reprehensible as a moral proposition than the
purchase of cargoes of sugar, cotton, coffee or tea against which
merchants borrowed money at the bank. In neither instance did the
purchaser own outright what he sought to sell at an advance; merely in
one case it was shares, in the other merchandise. Of course it was
foolish for inexperienced country folk with small means to dabble in
stocks and bonds, but why should not city people who were clever and had
clever friends in the business eke out the cost of living by shrewd
investments? In an old-fashioned sense it might be considered gambling;
but, if it were true, as Wilbur and Mr. Williams both maintained, that
the American people were addicted to speculation, was not the existence
of the habit strong evidence that the prejudice against it must be
ill-founded? The logical and the patriotic conclusion must needs be that
business methods had changed, and that the American nation had been
clever enough to substitute dealings in shares of stock, and in
contracts relating to cereals and merchandise for the methods of their
grandfathers who delivered the properties in bulk.

To this condensation of Gregory's glib sophistries on the lips of his
wife, Wilbur had seemed to turn a deaf ear. It did not occur to him, at
first, that Selma was seriously in earnest. He regarded her suggestions
of neglected opportunities, which were often whimsically uttered, as
more than half playful--a sort of make-believe envy of the meteoric
progress in magnificence of their friendly neighbors. He was even glad
that she should show herself appreciative of the merits of civilized
comfort, for he had been afraid lest her ascetic scruples would lead her
judgments too far in the opposite direction. He welcomed them and
encouraged her small schemes to make the establishment more festive and
stylish in appearance, in modest imitation of the splendor next door.
But constant and more sombre reference to the growing fortunes of the
Williamses pr