those payments, Richard. And there are only two in every year, though you
pay them a thousand dollars all at once. It does not seem very prompt on
their part.' I told her that this was the rule. 'But,' she urged, 'don't
you think that a man like Mr. Beverly might be able to get them to make
an exception if he explained the circumstances? Other people may be
satisfied with waiting for little crumbs in this way, but why should we?'
I soon made her understand how it was, however, and I explained many
other facts about investments and the stock market to her, as I learned
them. It was a great pleasure to do this. We came to talk about finance
even more than we talked of my writings; for during that Spring I
invested a good deal more rapidly than I wrote. The Petunias had taken
only one-twentieth of a million dollars; and though Mr. Beverly warned me
to rush hastily into nothing, and pointed out the good sense of
distributing my eggs in a number of baskets, still we both agreed that the
sooner all my money was bringing me five or six per cent, the better."

"I have come to think that it might be well were women taught the
elements of investing as they are now taught French and Music. I would
not have the French and Music dropped, but I would add the other. It
might be more of a protection to women than being able to read a French
novel, and perhaps some day we shall have it so. But of course it had
been left totally out of Ethel's education; and at first she merely
received my instruction and took my opinions. It was not long, however,
before she began to entertain some of her own, obliging me not
infrequently to reason with her. I very well remember the first occasion
that this happened."

"We had been as usual talking about stocks, as we walked on the Riverside
Drive on a Sunday afternoon in May. Ethel had been for some moments
silent. 'Richard,' she finally began, 'if I had had the naming of these