know.'"

"'I doubt that very much, Richard. And she strikes me as being the sort
of character for whom a mere telephone would not be enough excitement.
The nerves of those people require more and more stimulants to give them
any sensation at all. I believe that she sits in his private office and
watches the ticker.'"

"'Why not give her a ticker in her bedroom while you are about it,
Ethel?' I suggested."

"But Ethel could not smile. 'I think that is perfectly probable,' she
answered. And then, 'Oh, Richard, isn't it mean!' At this I took her
hand, and she--but again I abstain from dwelling upon those circumstances
of the engaged which are familiar to you all."

"The change of May into June, and the change of June into July, did not
mellow Ethel's bitter feelings. I remember the day after Petunias
defaulted on their interest that she exclaimed, 'I hope I shall never
meet her!' We always called Mr. Beverly's mother 'she' now. 'For if I
were to meet her,' continued Ethel, 'I feel I should say something that I
should regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that house
on Park Avenue!'"

"I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not
bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few of
my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was
into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk of
my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer
faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a good