be what I had become by force of
will--a fighter. But he was a sensitive child, anxious for approval;
not robust, though spiritual rather than delicate; even in comparative
infancy he cared more for books than toys, and his greatest joy was in
being read to. In spite of these traits--perhaps because of them--there
was a sympathy between us. From the time that he could talk the child
seemed to understand me. Occasionally I surprised him gazing at me with
a certain wistful look that comes back to me as I write.

Moreton, Tom used to call Alexander the Great because he was a fighter
from the cradle, beating his elder brother, too considerate to
strike back, and likewise--when opportunity offered--his sister; and
appropriating their toys. A self-sufficient, doughty young man, with the
round head that withstands many blows, taking by nature to competition
and buccaneering in general. I did not love him half so much as I did
Matthew--if such intermittent emotions as mine may be called love. It
was a standing joke of mine--which Maude strongly resented--that Moreton
resembled Cousin George of Elkington.

Imbued with the highest ambition of my time, I had set my barque on a
great circle, and almost before I realized it the barque was burdened
with a wife and family and the steering had insensibly become more
difficult; for Maude cared nothing about the destination, and when I
took any hand off the wheel our ship showed a tendency to make for a
quiet harbour. Thus the social initiative, which I believed should have
been the woman's, was thrust back on me. It was almost incredible, yet
indisputable, in a day when most American women were credited with a
craving for social ambition that I, of all men, should have married
a wife in whom the craving was wholly absent! She might have had what
other women would have given their souls for. There were many reasons
why I wished her to take what I deemed her proper place in the community
as my wife--not that I cared for what is called society in the narrow
sense; with me, it was a logical part of a broader scheme of life; an
auxiliary rather than an essential, but a needful auxiliary; a means of
dignifying and adorning the position I was taking. Not only that, but
I felt the need of intercourse--of intercourse of a lighter and more
convivial nature with men and women who saw life as I saw it. In the
evenings when we did not go out into that world our city afforded ennui
took possession o