Beverly's mother got some, and all your hesitation fled. And now I see that the Gulf, Galveston, and Little Rock is going to build a branch that may make Philippi a perfectly evaporated town. If you sold these bonds to-day, how much would you lose?'""I did not enjoy telling Ethel how much, but I had to. 'Only fifteen thousand dollars,' I said.""'Only!' said Ethel. 'Well, I hope his mother will lose a great deal more than that.'""It is seldom that Ethel taps her foot, but she had begun to tap it now;and this inclined me to avoid any attempt at a soothing reply, in the hope that silence might prove still more soothing, and that thus we might get away from old Mrs. Beverly.""'She cannot possibly be less than sixty-five,' Ethel presently announced. 'And she is far more likely to be seventy.'""I thought it best to agree to any age that Ethel chose to give the old lady.""'Do you suppose,' Ethel continued, 'that she does it by telephone?'""'My dearest,' I responded, 'he must do it all for her, of course, you know.'""'I doubt that very much, Richard. And she strikes me as being the sort of character for whom a mere telephone would not be enough excitement.
The nerves of those people require more and more stimulants to give them any sensation at all. I believe that she sits in his private office and watches the ticker.'""'Why not give her a ticker in her bedroom while you are about it, Ethel?' I suggested.""But Ethel could not smile. 'I think that is perfectly probable,' she answered. And then, 'Oh, Richard, isn't it mean!' At this I took her hand, and she--but again I abstain from dwelling upon those circumstances of the engaged which are familiar to you all.""The change of May into June, and the change of June into July, did not mellow Ethel's bitter feelings. I remember the day after Petunias defaulted on their interest that she exclaimed, 'I hope I shall never meet her!' We always called Mr. Beverly's mother 'she' now. 'For if Iwere to meet her,' continued Ethel, 'I feel I should say something that Ishould regret. Oh, Richard, I suppose we shall have to give up that house on Park Avenue!'""I put a cheerful and even insular face on the matter, for I could not bear to see Ethel so depressed. But it was hard work for me. Some few of my investments were evidently good; but it always seemed as if it was into these that I had happened to put not much money, while the bulk of my fortune was entangled in the others. Besides the usual Midsummer faintness that overtakes the stock market, my own specialties were a good deal more than faint. On the 20th of August I took the afternoon train to spend my two weeks' holiday at Lenox; and during much of the journey Igazed at the Wall Street edition of the afternoon paper that I had purchased as I came through the Grand Central Station. Ethel and I read it in the evening.""'I wonder what she's buying now?' said Ethel, vindictively.""'Well, I can't help feeling sorry for her,' I answered, with as much of a smile as I could produce.""'That is so unnecessary, Richard! She can easily afford to gratify her gambling instinct.'""'There you go, Ethel, inventing millions for her just as you invented grandchildren.'""'Not at all. Unless she constantly had money lying idle, she could not take these continual plunges. She is an old woman with few expenses, and she lives well within her income. You would hear of her entertaining if it was otherwise. So instead of conservatively investing her surplus, she makes ducks and drakes of it in her son's office. Is he at Hyde Park now?' Hyde Park was where the old Beverly country seat had always been.""'No,' I answered. 'He went to Europe early last month.'""'Very likely he took her with him. She is probably at Monte Carlo.'""'Scarcely in August, I fancy. And I'll tell you what, Ethel. I have been counting it up. She has lost twenty-four thousand dollars in the Standard Egg alone. It takes a good deal of surplus to stand that.'""'Serve her right,' said Ethel 'And I would say so to her face.'""September brought freshness to the stock market but not to me. Mr.
Beverly, like the well-to-do man that he was, remained away in Europe until October should require his presence as a guiding hand in the office. Thus was I left without his buoyant consolation in the face of my investments.""Petunias were being adjusted on a four per cent basis; Dutchess and Columbia Traction was holding its own; I could not complain of Amalgamated Electric, though it was now lower than when I had bought it, while had I sold it on that Wednesday in May when Ethel begged me, before the increased dividend turned out a mistake, I should have made money.
