bride and groom rowed back, bedraggled, to the room over the store.

Pollie could not cook--she could not figure--she could not keep
store--she could not read the "Philosophical Dictionary"--nor could she
even listen while her husband read, without nodding her sleepy head. No
baby came to rescue her from the shoals, and by responsibility and care
win her safely back to sanity.

Poor Pollie Lumm Girard!

Poor Silly Sailorman!

Venus played a trick on you--didn't she, and on herself, too, the jade!

Pollie became stout--enormously stout--the pearl-like pink of her cheek
now looked like burnt sienna, mixed with chrome yellow. She used to sit
all day in front of the store, looking at the pump.

She ceased to hear the pump; she did not even hear its creak, which she
once thought musical.

Her husband sent for a doctor. "Chronic dementia," the doctor diagnosed
it.

She was sent to an asylum, and there she lived for thirty-eight years.

Religiously, once a month, her husband went to visit her, but her brain
was melted and her dull, dead eyes gave no sign. She was only a
derelict, waiting for death.

* * * * *

The first six years that Girard was in Philadelphia he made little
headway. But he did not lose courage. He knew that the war must end
sometime, and that when it did, there would be a great revival of
business.

When others were beaten out and ready to give up, and prices were down,
he bought. Merchant ships were practically useless, and so were for
sale. He bought one brand-new boat and named it "The Water-Witch," for
this was the name he had for Pollie Lumm when she used to come with her
jug to his pump.

As soon as the war closed and peace was declared, Girard loaded his two
ships with grain and cotton and dispatched them to Bordeaux.

They were back in five months, having sold their cargoes, bringing
silks, wines and tea. These were at once sold at a profit of nearly a
hundred thousand dollars.

The ships were quickly loaded again. The captains were ordered to go to
Bordeaux, sell their cargoes and load with fruit and wine for Saint
Petersburg. There they were to sell their cargoes and buy hemp and iron,
and sail for Amsterdam. At Amsterdam they were to buy drygoods and sail
for Calcutta.

There they were to sell out and with the proceeds buy silks, teas and
coffees and make for America. These trips took a year to make, but
proved immensely profitable.

Girard no