e well were women taught the
elements of investing as they are now taught French and Music. I would
not have the French and Music dropped, but I would add the other. It
might be more of a protection to women than being able to read a French
novel, and perhaps some day we shall have it so. But of course it had
been left totally out of Ethel's education; and at first she merely
received my instruction and took my opinions. It was not long,
however, before she began to entertain some of her own, obliging me not
infrequently to reason with her. I very well remember the first occasion
that this happened."

"We had been as usual talking about stocks, as we walked on the
Riverside Drive on a Sunday afternoon in May. Ethel had been for some
moments silent. 'Richard,' she finally began, 'if I had had the
naming of these things, I should never have called them securities.
Insecurities comes a great deal nearer what they are. What right has a
thing that says on its face it is worth a thousand dollars to go bobbing
up and down in the way most of them do? I think that securities is
almost sarcastic. And have you noticed the price of those Petunias?'"

"I had, of course, noticed it; but I had not mentioned it to Ethel. 'I
read the papers now,' she explained, 'morning and evening. Of course the
market is off a little on account of the bank statement. But that is not
enough to account for the Petunias.'"

"'Ethel, you are nervous,' I said. 'And it is the papers which make you
so. The Petunias are a first lien on the whole property, of which the
assessed valuation--'"

"'What is the good,' she interrupted, 'of a first lien on something
which depends on politics for its existence, if the politicians change
their minds? Did you not see that bill they're thinking of passing?'
I was startled by what Ethel told me, for the article in the paper had
escaped my notice. But Mr. Beverly explained it to me in a couple of
minutes. 'Ha!' he jovially exclaimed, on my entering his office on
Monday morning; 'you want to know about Petunias. They opened at 85
I see.' He then ran the tape from the ticker through his clean strong
hands. 'Here they are again. Five thousand sold at 83. Now, if they
go to 70, I'll very likely take ten thousand more for mother. It's all
Frank Smith's bluff, you know. He wants a jag of the water-works stock,
more than they say they agreed he should have. So he's shaking this bill
over them, which would allow the city to bu