e people of the United States are engaged
in an eager struggle to advance themselves--to gain individual
distinction, comfort, success, and in New York to a greater extent than
in any other place can the capable man or woman sell his or her wares to
the best advantage--be they what they may, stocks, merchandise, law,
medicine, pictures. The world pays well for the things it wants--and the
world is pretty just in the long run. If it doesn't like my designs,
that will be because they're not worth buying. The great thing--the
difficult thing to guard against in the whirl of this great city, where
we are all striving to get ahead--is not to sell one's self for money,
not to sacrifice the thing worth doing for mere pecuniary advantage.
It's the great temptation to some to do so, for only money can buy fine
houses, and carriages and jewels--yes, and in a certain sense, social
preferment. The problem is presented in a different form to every man.
Some can grow rich honestly, and some have to remain poor in order to be
true to themselves. We may have to remain poor, Selma mia." He spoke
gayly, as though that prospect did not disturb him in the least.

"And we shall be just as good as the people who own these houses." She
said it gravely, as if it were a declaration of principles, and at the
same moment her gaze was caught and disturbed by a pair of blithe,
fashionably dressed young women gliding by her with the quiet,
unconscious grace of good-breeding. She was inwardly aware, though she
would never acknowledge it by word or sign, that such people troubled
her. More even than Mrs. Taylor had troubled her. They were different
from her and they tantalized her.

At the same moment her husband was saying in reply, "Just as good, but
not necessarily any better. No--other things being equal--not so good.
We mustn't deceive ourselves with that piece of cant. Some of them are
frivolous enough, and dishonest enough, heaven knows, but so there are
frivolous and dishonest people in every class. But there are many more
who endeavor to be good citizens--are good citizens, our best citizens.
The possession of money gives them the opportunity to become arbiters of
morals and taste, and to seek culture under the best advantages. After
all, an accumulation of money represents brains and energy in some one.
Look at this swell," he continued, indicating an attractive looking
young man who was passing. "His grandfather was one of the ablest men in