esently attracted his attention and made him more
observant. His income sufficed to pay the ordinary expenses of quiet
domestic life, and to leave a small margin for carefully, considered
amusements, but he reflected that if Selma were yearning for greater
luxury, he could not afford at present to increase materially her
allowance. It grieved him as a proud man to think that the woman he
loved should lack any thing she desired, and without a thought of
distrust he applied himself more strenuously to his work, hoping that
the sum of his commissions would enable him presently to gratify some of
her hankerings--such, for instance, as the possession of a horse and
vehicle. Selma had several times alluded with a sigh to the satisfaction
there must be in driving in the new park. Babcock had kept a horse, and
the Williamses now drove past the windows daily in a phaeton drawn by
two iron gray, champing steeds. He said to himself that he could
scarcely blame Selma if she coveted now and then Flossy's fine
possessions, and the thought that she was not altogether happy in
consequence of his failure to earn more kept recurring to his mind and
worried him. No children had been born to them, and he pictured with
growing concern his wife lonely at home on this account, yet without
extra income to make purchases which might enable her to forget at times
that there was no baby in the house. Flossy had two children, a boy and
a girl, two gorgeously bedizened little beings who were trundled along
the sidewalk in a black, highly varnished baby-wagon which was reputed
by the dealer who sold it to Gregory to have belonged to an English
nobleman. Wilbur more than once detected Selma looking at the babies
with a wistful glance. She was really admiring their clothes, yet the
thought of how prettily she would have been able to dress a baby of her
own was at times so pathetic as to bring tears to her eyes, and cause
her to deplore her own lack of children as a misfortune.

As the weeks slipped away and Wilbur realized that, though he was
gaining ground in his profession, more liberal expenditures were still
out of the question, he reached a frame of mind which made him yearn for
a means of relief. So it happened that, when Selma asked him once more
why he did not follow the advice proffered and buy some stocks, he
replied by smiling at Gregory and inquiring what he should buy. During
the dinner, which had been pleasant, Wilbur's eye had been attra