t of brown hair did not detract very largely from the influences
of her mental superiority; and Sir William was arrived at that precise
lustre in which such fascinations obtain their most undisputed triumphs.

Poets talk of youth as the impressionable age; they rave about its
ardor, its impetuous, uncalculating generosity, and so forth; but for
an act of downright self-forgetting devotion, for that impulsive
spirit that takes no counsel from calm reason, give us an elderly
gentleman,--anything from sixty-four to fourscore. These are the really
ardent and tender lovers,--easy victims, too, of all the wiles that
beset them.

Had any grave notary, or deep plotting man upon 'Change suggested to Sir
William the project of employing his ward's fortune with any view to his
own profit, the chances are that the hint would have been rejected as an
outrage, and the suggester insulted; but the plan came from rosy lips,
whispered by the softest of voices; and even the arithmetic was
jotted down by fingers so taper and so white that he lost sight of the
multiples in his admiration of the calculator. His first experiences,
besides, were all great successes. Kansas scrip went up to a fabulous
premium. When he sold out his Salt Lake Fives, he realized cent per cent
These led him on. That "ardor nummi" which was not new in the days of
the Latin poet, is as rife in _our_ time as it was centuries ago.

Let us also bear in mind that there is something very fascinating to
a man of a naturally active temperament to be recalled, after years of
inglorious leisure, to subjects of deep and stirring interest; he likes
the self-flattery of being equal to such themes, that his judgment
should be as sound, his memory as clear, and his apprehension as ready
as it used to be. Proud man is the old fox-hunter that can charge
his "quickset" at fourscore; but infinitely prouder the old country
gentleman who, at the same age, fancies himself deep in all the
mysteries of finance, and skilled in the crafty lore of the share-market.

And, last of all, he was vexed and irritated by Charley's desertion of
him, and taunted by the tone in which the young man alluded to the widow
and her influence in the family. To be taught caution, or to receive
lessons in worldly craft from one very much our junior, is always a
trial of temper; and so did everything conspire to make him an easy
victim to her machinations.

And May,--what of her? May signed her name when and