the next year) for "traction stock" that was paying dividends; and
thereafter he ceased to buy and sell. Thus he disappeared altogether
from the commercial surface at about the time James Sheridan came out
securely on top; and Sheridan, until Mrs. Vertrees called upon him
with her "anti-smoke" committee, had never heard the name.

Mr. Vertrees, pinched, retired to his Landseers, and Mrs. Vertrees
"managed somehow" on the dividends, though "managing" became more and
more difficult as the years went by and money bought less and less.
But there came a day when three servitors of Bigness in Philadelphia
took greedy counsel with four fellow-worshipers from New York, and
not long after that there were no more dividends for Mr. Vertrees.
In fact, there was nothing for Mr. Vertrees, because the "traction
stock" henceforth was no stock at all, and he had mortgaged his house
long ago to help "manage somehow" according to his conception of his
"position in life"--one of his own old-fashioned phrases. Six months
before the completion of the New House next door, Mr. Vertrees had
sold his horses and the worn Victoria and "station-wagon," to pay the
arrears of his two servants and re-establish credit at the grocer's
and butcher's--and a pair of elderly carriage-horses with such
accoutrements are not very ample barter, in these days, for six
months' food and fuel and service. Mr. Vertrees had discovered, too,
that there was no salary for him in all the buzzing city--he could do
nothing.

It may be said that he was at the end of his string. Such times do
come in all their bitterness, finally, to the man with no trade or
craft, if his feeble clutch on that slippery ghost, Property, shall
fail.