His business was the selling of bonds. The friend of the family was the
head of the firm, so no importance should be attached to the fact that
George did not earn his salt as a salesman. It is only necessary to report
that the young man made frequent and determined efforts to sell his wares,
but with so little success that he would have been discouraged had it not
been for the fact that he was intimately acquainted with himself. He knew
himself too well to expect people to take much stock in the public
endeavours of one whose private affairs were so far beneath notice. Men
were not likely to overlook the disgraceful treatment of the little
"mustard girl," for even the men who have mistreated women in their time
overlook their own chicanery in preaching decency over the heads of others
who have not played the game fairly. George looked upon himself as a
marked man, against whom the scorn of the world was justly directed.

Strange as it may appear, George Tresslyn was a tall, manly looking
fellow, and quite handsome. At a glance you would have said that he had a
great deal of character in his make-up and would get on in the world. Then
you would hear about his matrimonial delinquency and instantly you would
take a second glance. The second and more searching look would have
revealed him as a herculean light-weight,—a man of strength and beauty and
stature spoiled in the making. And you would be sorry that you had made
the discovery, for it would take you back to his school days, and then you
would encounter the causes.

He had gone to a preparatory school when he was twelve. It was eight years
before he got into the freshman class of the college that had been
selected as the one best qualified to give him a degree, and there is no
telling how long he might have remained there, faculty willing, had it not
been for the interfering "mustard girl." He could throw a hammer farther
and run the hundred faster than any youth in the freshman class, and he