s
house and other effects, Mr. Parr became the owner of the Grantham
stock, which not long after went to one hundred dollars. The reader may
do the figuring.

Where was some talk at this time, but many things had happened since.
For example, Mr. Parr had given away great sums in charity. And it may
likewise be added in his favour that Mr. Bentley was glad to be rid of
his fortune. He had said so. He deeded his pew back to St. John's, and
protesting to his friends that he was not unhappy, he disappeared from
the sight of all save a few. The rising waters of Prosperity closed over
him. But Eliza Preston, now Mrs. Parr, was one of those who were never
to behold him again,--in this world, at least.

She was another conspicuous triumph in that career we are depicting.
Gradual indeed had been the ascent from the sweeping out of a store to
the marrying of a Preston, but none the less sure inevitable. For many
years after this event, Eldon Parr lived modestly in what was known as a
"stone-front" house in Ransome Street, set well above the sidewalk, with
a long flight of yellow stone steps leading to it; steps scrubbed with
Sapoho twice a week by a negro in rubber boots. There was a stable with
a tarred roof in the rear, to be discerned beyond the conventional side
lawn that was broken into by the bay window of the dining-room.
There, in that house, his two children were born: there, within those
inartistic walls, Eliza Preston lived a life that will remain a closed
book forever. What she thought, what she dreamed, if anything, will
never be revealed. She did not, at least, have neurasthenia, and for all
the world knew, she may have loved her exemplary and successful
husband, with whom her life was as regular as the Strasburg clock.
She breakfasted at eight and dined at seven; she heard her children's
lessons and read them Bible stories; and at half past ten every Sunday
morning, rain or shine, walked with them and her husband to the cars on
Tower Street to attend service at St. John's, for Mr. Parr had scruples
in those days about using the carriage on the Sabbath.

She did not live, alas, to enjoy for long the Medicean magnificence
of the mansion facing the Park, to be a companion moon in the greater
orbit. Eldon Part's grief was real, and the beautiful English window in
the south transept of the church bears witness to it. And yet it cannot
be said that he sought solace in religion, so apparently steeped in it
had he alway