So, little by little, his fortune became shrunken toward
nothingness, by reason of injudicious investments. He married a
charming woman, who, after a brief period of wedded happiness,
gave her life to the birth of the single child of the union,
Mary. Afterward, in his distress over this loss, Ray Turner
seemed even more incompetent for the management of business
affairs. As the years passed, the daughter grew toward maturity
in an experience of ever-increasing penury. Nevertheless, there
was no actual want of the necessities of life, though always a
woful lack of its elegancies. The girl was in the high-school,
when her father finally gave over his rather feeble effort of
living. Between parent and child, the intimacy had been unusually
close. At his death, the father left her a character well
instructed in the excellent principles that had been his own.
That was his sole legacy to her. Of worldly goods, not the value
of a pin.

Yet, measured according to the stern standards of adversity, Mary
was fortunate. Almost at once, she procured a humble employment
in the Emporium, the great department store owned by Edward
Gilder. To be sure, the wage was infinitesimal, while the toil
was body-breaking soul-breaking. Still, the pittance could be
made to sustain life, and Mary was blessed with both soul and
body to sustain much. So she merged herself in the army of
workers--in the vast battalion of those that give their entire
selves to a labor most stern and unremitting, and most ill
rewarded.

Mary, nevertheless, avoided the worst perils of her lot. She did