an's home, he may forget it. But excel him, do him a
favor, show yourself in any light his superior, then indeed is the
affront great. Mediocrity is unforgiving. We pretend to admire
greatness, but we isolate it and call that isolation Fame. It is above
us; we cannot touch it; but mud is plentiful and that we can throw. And
if no mud be at hand, we can loose that active abstraction, malice,
which subsists on men and things. No; had I an enemy I could wish him no
greater penance than success--success prompt, vertiginous, immense! To
the world, as I have found it, success is a crime, and its atonement,
not death, but torture. Truly, Miss Menemon, humanity is not admirable.
Men mean well enough, no doubt; but nature is against them. Libel is the
tribute that failure pays to success. If I am slandered, it is because I
have succeeded. But what is said of my father is wholly true. He did
make shoes, God bless him! and very good shoes they were. Pardon me for
not having said so before."

Eden listened as were she assisting at the soliloquy of an engastrimuth.
The words he uttered seemed to come less from him than from one unknown
yet not undevined. And now, as he paused for encouragement or rebuke, he
saw that her eyes were in his.

"Miss Menemon," he continued, "forget my outer envelope; if you could
read in my heart, you would find it full of love for you."

"Perhaps," she said, and smiled as at a vista visible only to herself. "I
will tell my father what you say," she added demurely.

With that answer Mr. Usselex was fain to be content. And presently, when
he had gone, she wondered how it was that she had ever cared for Dugald
Maule.

A week later the engagement of Miss Menemon to John Usselex was
announced. Much comment was excited, and the rumors alluded to were
industriously circulated. But comment and rumors notwithstanding, the
marriage took place, and after it the bride left her father's dingy
little house on Second Avenue for a newer and larger one on Fifth. Many
people had envied Usselex his wealth; on that day they envied him his
bride.

II.

It was late in November before Eden found herself in full possession of
her new home. Shortly after the ceremony she had gone to Newport, and
when summer departed she made for Lennox, which she deserted for
Tuxedo. It was therefore not until the beginning of winter that the
brown hollands were removed from her town residence.

During the intervening months sh