to begin with the 'Ring and the Book.'"

In the later part of May, the weather being unusually hot, the Jadwins,
taking Page with them, went up to Geneva Lake for the summer, and the
great house fronting Lincoln Park was deserted.

Laura had hoped that now her husband would be able to spend his entire
time with her, but in this she was disappointed. At first Jadwin went
down to the city but two days a week, but soon this was increased to
alternate days. Gretry was a frequent visitor at the country house, and
often he and Jadwin, their rocking-chairs side by side in a remote
corner of the porch, talked "business" in low tones till far into the
night.

"Dear," said Laura, finally, "I'm seeing less and less of you every
day, and I had so looked forward to this summer, when we were to be
together all the time."

"I hate it as much as you do, Laura," said her husband. "But I do feel
as though I ought to be on the spot just for now. I can't get it out of
my head that we're going to have livelier times in a few months."

"But even Mr. Gretry says that you don't need to be right in your
office every minute of the time. He says you can manage your Board of
Trade business from out here just as well, and that you only go into
town because you can't keep away from La Salle Street and the sound of
the Wheat Pit."

Was this true? Jadwin himself had found it difficult to answer. There
had been a time when Gretry had been obliged to urge and coax to get
his friend to so much as notice the swirl of the great maelstrom in the
Board of Trade Building. But of late Jadwin's eye and ear were forever
turned thitherward, and it was he, and no longer Gretry, who took
initiatives.

Meanwhile he was making money. As he had predicted, the price of wheat
had advanced. May had been a fair-weather month with easy prices, the
monthly Government report showing no loss in the condition of the crop.
Wheat had gone up from sixty to sixty-six cents, and at a small profit
Jadwin had sold some two hundred and fifty thousand bushels. Then had
come the hot weather at the end of May. On the floor of the Board of
Trade the Pit traders had begun to peel off their coats. It began to
look like a hot June, and when cash wheat touched sixty-eight, Jadwin,
now more than ever convinced of a coming Bull market, bought another
five hundred thousand bushels.

This line he added to in June. Unfavorable weather--excessive heat,
followed by flooding rains--had hur