s and maturity to make the discovery that the
power of faith is nobler than the power of doubt; and that there is a
celestial wisdom in the ingenuous propensity to trust, which belongs to
honest and noble natures. Elderly skeptics generally regard their
unbelief as a misfortune.

Not that Moses was, after all, without "the angel in him." He had a good
deal of the susceptibility to poetic feeling, the power of vague and
dreamy aspiration, the longing after the good and beautiful, which is
God's witness in the soul. A noble sentiment in poetry, a fine scene in
nature, had power to bring tears in his great dark eyes, and he had,
under the influence of such things, brief inspired moments in which he
vaguely longed to do, or be, something grand or noble. But this,
however, was something apart from the real purpose of his life,--a sort
of voice crying in the wilderness,--to which he gave little heed.
Practically, he was determined with all his might, to have a good time
in this life, whatever another might be,--if there were one; and that he
would do it by the strength of his right arm. Wealth he saw to be the
lamp of Aladdin, which commanded all other things. And the pursuit of
wealth was therefore the first step in his programme.

As for plans of the heart and domestic life, Moses was one of that very
common class who had more desire to be loved than power of loving. His
cravings and dreams were not for somebody to be devoted to, but for
somebody who should be devoted to him. And, like most people who
possess this characteristic, he mistook it for an affectionate
disposition.

Now the chief treasure of his heart had always been his little sister
Mara, chiefly from his conviction that he was the one absorbing thought
and love of her heart. He had never figured life to himself otherwise
than with Mara at his side, his unquestioning, devoted friend. Of course
he and his plans, his ways and wants, would always be in the future, as
they always had been, her sole thought. These sleeping partnerships in
the interchange of affection, which support one's heart with a basis of
uncounted wealth, and leave one free to come and go, and buy and sell,
without exaction or interference, are a convenience certainly, and the
loss of them in any way is like the sudden breaking of a bank in which
all one's deposits are laid.

It had never occurred to Moses how or in what capacity he should always
stand banker to the whole wealth of love tha