the factors with which that success is achieved,
Envy will call a host of enemies into being as swiftly as Cadmus
summoned his soldiery. And these enemies will come not alone from
the outer world, but from the ranks of his nearest friends. Ruin a
man's home, he may forget it. But excel him, do him a favor, show
yourself in any light his superior, then indeed is the affront
great. Mediocrity is unforgiving. We pretend to admire greatness,
but we isolate it and call that isolation Fame. It is above us; we
cannot touch it; but mud is plentiful and that we can throw. And if
no mud be at hand, we can loose that active abstraction, malice,
which subsists on men and things. No; had I an enemy I could wish
him no greater penance than success--success prompt, vertiginous,
immense! To the world, as I have found it, success is a crime, and
its atonement, not death, but torture. Truly, Miss Menemon,
humanity is not admirable. Men mean well enough, no doubt; but
nature is against them. Libel is the tribute that failure pays to
success. If I am slandered, it is because I have succeeded. But
what is said of my father is wholly true. He did make shoes, God
bless him! and very good shoes they were. Pardon me for not having
said so before."

Again, here is another character speaking, and it seems a continuation
of what we have quoted. It is not; there are nearly a hundred pages
between the two, and a world-wide difference in sex. Now read:

"Before I met you I thought myself in love. Oh, but I did, though.
And it was not until after I had known you that I found that which
I had taken for love was not love at all. How did I know? Well--you
see, because that is not love which goes. And that went. It was for
the man I cared, not the individual. At the time I did not
understand, nor did I until you came. Truly I don't see why I
should speak of this. Every girl, I fancy, experiences the same
thing. But when you came life seemed larger. You brought with you
new currents. Do you know what I thought? People said I married you
for money. I married you because--what do you suppose, now? Because
I loved you? But at that time I told myself I had done with love.
No, it was not so much for that as because I was ambitious for us
both. It was because I thought Wall Street too small for such as