l afford the reader some clue to the
character of Mrs. Tompkins. Her husband, to whom she had been
married about ten years, had gradually risen from the position of a
clerk to that of a merchant, in a small way, when the death of a
distant relative put him in possession of about, thirty thousand
dollars. Up to that time, his wife, who was a poor girl when he
married her, had been content to live in a style suited to their
means. But the moment a fortune so large in her eyes, fell to their
share, her ideas expanded, and she suddenly became aware of the fact
that she was a woman of no mean importance.

To Mr. Tompkins, this money came just in time to save him from
failure. He had started, as too many do, without capital, and had
unwisely attempted to do more business than means so limited would
bear. He, consequently, knew the value of money far better than his
wife, and was disposed to invest what he did not require in his
business, in a safe way. She, on the contrary, proposed that they
should, at once, adopt a style of living in consonance with their
bettered fortunes.

"We live very comfortably, as we now are," he said, in answer to a
repetition of her plea for a handsome house, on the evening
following the day of his interview with Wolford. "We live as well as
our means have, until within a few years, enabled us to live."

Mrs. Tompkins rejoined--

"With improved fortunes, we should adopt a different style."

"I don't think we should be in any particular hurry about it," said
the husband. "Let the change, if any be made, come gradually."

"All eyes are upon us," was Mrs. Tompkins's answer to this. "And
everybody expects us to take a different and higher place in
society."

"It is my opinion," said the husband, "that we are free to live in
any style that may suit us."

"It is all very well to say that, Mr. Tompkins, but it will not do.
We must, while in the world, do as the world does. People in our
circumstances do not live in a rented house;--we should have a
dwelling of our own, and that a handsome one--handsomer than
Gileston's house, about which there, is so much talk."

"Gileston's house!" said Mr. Tompkins, in surprise. "Why that house
didn't cost a cent less than twenty-five thousand dollars."

"Well, suppose it did not. What then?"

"Do you imagine that we can build a house at an expense of
twenty-five thousand dollars?"

"Why not, Mr. Tompkins?"

"Where is the money to come from?"

"There