give him every encouragement until ... until the fatal truth
became known. It was not that his immediate supply of cash was pitiable:
it was because he had no "prospects." He had no trade, being merely the
driver of a cab. Now it is possible for a cab-driver to marry and bring
up a family, but it was a perverse fate that all the girls to whom he
paid attention looked somewhat higher in life. And Henry Brown was
unable to satisfy their aspirations. He was deep in the groove of
cab-driving by the time he was twenty-three, and could conceive no other
calling at which he might succeed.

Of course he might have tried to win a wife with less social ambition,
but he made only one effort in this direction. At twenty-five he
fluttered after a lady who seemed a promising helpmeet. She was a
milliner's assistant, and swore to wait till Henry Brown had saved
enough to start a home. She waited six weeks, and then, in a fit of
romance or madness, married a scavenger.

This, in a commercial sense, had been the making of Henry Brown. Soured
by his experiences, he had resolved to hold aloof from Woman and devote
himself to Thrift. Some men might have taken to drink; but a strain of
Scottish or Jewish blood, coupled with a human desire to show the world
he could do something, compelled Mr. Brown to save. For something like
thirteen years he lived carefully and put money by. Then came a chance
legacy of five hundred pounds. With this and his savings he determined
to hazard all, cease to be a wage-slave, and start in business as a
cab-proprietor on his own account.

He had the luck to start just as taxicabs came in, so he had no old
stock left on his hands. He bought two taxis at first and learned the
business thoroughly, driving one himself for three months to save money
and get experience. Gradually he extended his operations, and by the end
of four years he had twenty taxicabs under his command. He still lived
carefully, though in comfort, and when he arrived at his fortieth year
he rubbed his hands. "Well," he said to himself one day, "I've done it.
I might begin to think about choosing a wife now." It was significant
that he said "choose": in his youth he would have said "seek" or
possibly "sue for."

Mr. Brown went about the business with a methodical earnestness, buying
in the first instance a new lounge suit and an appropriate tie. He also
discarded pipes as being vulgar, and took to threepenny cigars instead.
Thus habited, if