But Nature knows no law of entail; she does, however, have her Law of
Compensation, and this is the law which holds in order the balance of
things. If a man accumulates a vast fortune, he probably also breeds
spendthrifts who speedily distribute his riches; if he has great talent,
the talent dies with him, for he only inspires those who are not of his
blood; and if a woman is deprived of the environment for which her soul
yearns, quite often her children adjust the average by working out an
answer to her prayer.

When twenty-eight years of age we find Madame Scheffer a widow, with
three sons: by name, Ariel, Henri and Arnold.

Madame Scheffer had a little money--not much, but enough to afford her a
small, living income.

She might have married again, or she could have kept her little "dot"
intact and added interest to principal by going and living with kinsmen
who were quite willing to care for her and adopt her children.

But no; she decided to leave the sleepy little Dutch village where they
lived in Holland, and go down to Paris.

And so she thrust her frail bark boldly out upon the tide, hoping and
expecting that somewhere and sometime the Friendly Islands would be
reached. She would spend her last sou in educating her boys, and she
knew, she said, that when that was gone, God would give them the power
and inclination to care for her and provide for themselves. In short, she
tumbled her whole basket of bread upon the waters, fully confident that
it would come back buttered. Her object in moving to Paris was that her