public flout you and jeer you for a pretender? Did the
public overpraise you at first? Its mistaken partiality becomes now your
presumption. Last year the press said you were the rival of Hawthorne.
This year it is, "that Miss Charmian who set herself up as a second
Hawthorne." When the new house was opened, it might be said that socially
Mrs. Henderson had "arrived." Had she? When one enters on the path of
worldliness is there any resting-place? Is not eternal vigilance the
price of position?

Henderson was apparently on good terms with the world. Many envied him,
many paid him the sincerest flattery, that of imitation. He was a king in
the street, great enterprises sought his aid, all the charities knocked
at his door, his word could organize a syndicate or a trust, his nod
could smash a "corner." There were fabulous stories about his wealth,
about his luck. This also was Margaret's world. Her ambition expanded in
it with his. The things he set his heart on she coveted. Alas! there is
always another round to the ladder.

Seeing the means by which he gained his ends, and the public condonation
of them, would not his cynicism harden into utter unbelief in general
virtue and goodness? I don't know that Henderson changed much, accented
as his grasping selfishness was on occasion; prosperity had not impaired
that indifferent good-fellowship and toleration which had early gained
him popularity. His presence was nowhere a rebuke to whatever was going
on. He was always accessible, often jocular. The younger members in the
club said Henderson was a devilish good fellow, whatever people said. The
President of the United States used to send for him and consult him,
because he wanted no office; he knew men, and it was a relief to talk
with a liberal rich man of so much bonhomie who wanted nothing.

And Margaret, what view of the world did all this give her? Did she come
in contact with any one who had not his price, who was not going or
wanting to go in the general current? Was it not natural that she should
take Henderson's view? Dear me, I am not preaching about her. We did not
see much of her in those days, and for one or two years of what I suppose
was her greatest enjoyment of her social triumphs. So far as we heard,
she was liked, admired, followed, envied. It could not be otherwise, for
she did not lose her beauty nor her charm, and she tried to please. Once
when I saw her in the city and we fell into talk--and the talk w