CHAPTER VII


Even in the days of his first, forced marches toward fortune, when
besides his unshakable plunger's nerve he stood almost without an asset,
Hamilton Burton's policy had been that the limelight paid, and as he had
mounted from moderate success into the millionaire class, and thence
into the division rated in a plurality of millions, he had always
adhered to the plan of letting nothing which reflected his personality
fall below the standards of superlative worth and cost.

At first, he thought of the conspicuousness of wealth as a credential
tending to enlarge the scope and standing of its possessor. In a city
whose public is surfeited with a show of splendor, the man who would
find himself underscored must pitch such conspicuousness to a scale of
rajah-like magnificence.

With a thoroughness born of gigantic gambling instinct Hamilton Burton
directed his policy of the outward show and trappings of wealth through
every artery of his life and the lives of his family. Yet, because his
taste was discriminating and sound, he was able to combine the maximum
effect of expenditure with the simplicity of the artistic and to shun
the pitfall of the offensive.

In those earlier days when the family was fresh from the frugality of
the hills, its elder members had constantly been appalled by the youth's