Similar reasoning had attended their various residences abroad--in
London, Paris, Rome. Country-houses in England or villas on the Riviera
became matters of necessity, according to the demands of Olivia's entry
into the world of fashion or Mrs. Guion's health.

It was not till the death of the latter, some seven years ago, that
Guion, obliged to pause, was able to take cognizance of the degree to
which he had imperiled himself in the years of effort to maintain their
way of life. It could not be said that at the time he regretted what he
had done, but he allowed it to frighten him into some ineffectual
economies. He exchanged the cottage at Newport for one at Lenox, and,
giving up the house in Boston, withdrew to Tory Hill. Ceasing himself to
go into society, he sent his daughter abroad for a large portion of her
time, either in the care of Madame de Melcourt or, in London, under the
wing of some of the American ladies prominent in English life.

Having taken these steps, with no small pride in his capacity for
sacrifice, Guion set himself seriously to reconstruct his own fortune
and to repair the inroads he had made on those in his trust. It was a
matter in which he had but few misgivings as to his capacity. The making
of money, he often said, was an easy thing, as could be proved by the
intellectual grade of the men who made it. One had only to look about
one to see that they were men in whom the average of ability was by no
means high, men who achieved their successes largely by a kind of rule
of thumb. They got the knack of investment--and they invested. He
preferred the word investment to another which might have challenged
comment. They bought in a low market and sold in a high one--and the
trick was done. Some instinct--a _flair_, he called it--was required in
order to recognize, more or less at sight, those properties which would
quickly and surely appreciate in value; and he believed he possessed it.