ondholders who said that it was rascally, that they had been boldly
swindled. In the clubs, long after, you would hear it said that Hollowell
and Henderson were awfully sharp, and hard to beat. It is a very bad
business, said the Brandon parliament, and it just shows that the whole
country is losing its moral sense, its capacity to judge what is right
and what is wrong.

I do not say that this explanation, the nature of which I have only
indicated, would have satisfied the clear mind of Margaret a year or two
before. But it was made by the man she loved, the man who had brought her
out into a world that was full of sunlight and prosperity and satisfied
desire; and more and more, day by day, she saw the world through his
eyes, and accepted his estimate of the motives of people--and a low
estimate I fear it was. Who would not be rich if he could? Do you mean to
tell me that a man who is getting fat dividends out of a stock does not
regard more leniently the manner in which that stock is manipulated than
one who does not own any of it? I dare say, if Carmen had heard that
explanation, and seen Margaret's tearful, happy acceptance of it, she
would have shaken her pretty head and said, "They are getting too worldly
for me."

In the morning the letter was despatched to Miss Forsythe, enclosing the
check for Mrs. Fletcher--a joyful note, full of affection. "We cannot
come," Margaret wrote. "My husband cannot leave, and he does not want to
spare me"--the little hypocrite! he had told her that she could easily go
for a day "but we shall think of you dear ones all day, and I do hope
that now there will not be the least cloud on your Christmas."

It seems a great pity, in view of the scientific organization of society,
that there are so many sensibilities unclassified and unprovided for in
the otherwise perfect machinery. Why should the beggar to whom you toss a
silver dollar from your carriage feel a little grudge against you?
Perhaps he wouldn't like to earn the dollar, but if it had been
accompanied by a word of sympathy, his sensibility might have been
soothed by your recognition of human partnership in the goods of this
world. People not paupers are all eager to take what is theirs of right;
but anything in the semblance of charity is a bitter pill to swallow
until self-respect is a little broken down. Probably the resentment lies
in the recognition of the truth that it is much easier to be charitable
than to be just. If Ma