which had become wearisome. She has
removed from a vast mansion to a less conspicuous home.

Of all the women in Chicago she would consider herself most fortunate.

People call her cold. It is certain that she is best pleased with a
husband like Lockwin. It is his business to be famous.

"Go to Congress," she says. "Outlive your enemies. I think, David,
that men are not the equals of women in defending themselves against
the shafts of enmity. Outlive your enemies, David."

That Lockwin has the nature she required was to be seen in the death of
Davy. An event which would have beclouded the life of common brides
came to Esther as an important communication. She saw Lockwin's heart.
She saw him kissing the soles of Davy's feet. There is something
despotic in her nature which was satisfied in his act. There is also a
devotion in her nature which might be as profound.

She would kiss the soles of David Lockwin's feet, were he dead. She
could kiss his feet were he despised and rejected among men.

Yet she is counted the haughtiest woman that goes by.

"Mrs. Lockwin is a double-decker," the grocer declares to his head
clerk. "She rides mighty high out of the water."

The grocer used to haul lumber from Muskegon. His metaphors smell of
the deep.

For ten years young men of all temperaments had besieged this lady.
The fame of her money had entranced them. Suitors who were afraid of
her distinguished person still paid court, smitten by the love of money.

She was so proud that she must marry a proud man. She must marry a man
conspicuous, tall, large, slow. She must banish from her mind that
hateful fear of the man who might want her for her financial
expectations.

Sometimes when she surveyed the matrimonial field she noted that the
eligible suitors were few.

Men with blonde mustaches of extreme length would recite lovers' poems.
Men with jet-black hair, eyes and beard would be equally foolish. The
lady would listen politely to both.

"It is the Manitoba cold wave!" the lovers would lament as they left
her.

To see Esther Wandrell pass by--beautiful, heroic, composed--was to
feel she was the most magnetic of women. To recite verses to her--to
lay siege to her heart--was to learn that her personal magnetism was
from a repellant pole. The air grew heavy. There was a lack of ozone.
The presumptuous beleaguerer withdrew and was glad to come off without
capture.

There had been one man, and towa