wife were descended from old and wealthy New York families. They had
all the polish which life-long association with the fashionable world
bestows. What was more, they were highly intelligent, and, in their
own sphere, gifted people. Mr. Allen was a leader in business in one
of the chief commercial centres, and to lead in legitimate business in
our day requires as much ability, indeed we may say genius, as to lead
in any order department of life. He would have shown no more ignorance
in the study, studio, and laboratory, than their occupants would have
shown in the counting-room. That to which he devoted his energies he
had become a master in. It is true he had narrowed down his life to
little else than business. He had never acquired a taste for art and
literature, nor had he given himself time for broad culture. But we
meet narrow artists, narrow clergymen, narrow scientists just as
truly. If you do not get on their hobby and ride with them, they seem
disposed to ride over you. Indeed, in our brief life with its fierce
competitions, few other than what are known as "one idea" men have
time to succeed. Even genius must drive with tremendous and
concentrated energy, to distance competitors. Mr. Allen was quite as
great in his department as any of the lions that his wife lured into
her parlors were in theirs.

Mrs. Allen was also a leader in her own chosen sphere, or rather in
the one to which she had been educated. Given _carte-blanche_ in the
way of expense, she would produce a brilliant entertainment which few
could surpass. The coloring and decorations of her rooms would not be
more rich, varied, or in better taste, than the diversity, and yet
harmony of the people she would bring together by her adroit
selections. She had studied society, and for it she lived, not to make
it better, not to elevate its character, and tone down its
extravagances, but simply to shine in it, to be talked about and