of his genius
upon the fatal antipathies of vermin, his success was so deservedly
rewarded that he was a millionaire in less than three years. He returned
to England, and, avoiding the alley of inglorious memory, courted and
won the daughter of a manufacturer, his ambition driving him to compel
social recognition in his native city. It soared no higher, but his
wife, now no longer one of a large family, but with the income of a
generous millionaire at her disposal, was open to higher promptings; and
he to conversion. They moved to London and laid their plans with some
skill.

But although London can stand a good deal in the cause of resupply and
novelty, the violence of Mrs. Tippett's accent, and the terrible
solecisms of a gentleman whose education had begun in a Lancashire alley
and finished in the business purlieus of Chicago, who had acquired the
American vice of brag in its acutest form, and who, when in his cups,
shouted and spat and swore, were more than the most enterprising among
them had been called upon to endure. The social ambitions of the
Tippetts were so definitely quenched that the indignant millionaire
threatened to return to Chicago. But Mrs. Tippett moved him firmly to
Brighton, where, in the course of time, she toned him down. They made
their way slowly into society of a sort, and attracted the attention of
the public. There was no law to prevent them from dining at the
fashionable hotels, where Paris gowns could not pass unobserved; and
their turnouts were irreproachable.

Mrs. Tippet, an astute woman, by this time had realized that hers was
not the destiny of the social star, and she concentrated her hopes and
ambitions upon her one child, an uncommonly clever little girl. This
child grew up in a luxury that would have stifled even her precocious
mind had it not been for the rigid laws of the school-room. Her
governesses and tutors were selected with a sharp eye to the number of
titles in their reference-books, but dismissed promptly if they were
unworthy of their hire. Later, the little Julia was sent to a
distinguished school near Paris, where, with an eye to her future
well-being, remarkable in one so young, she divided her affectionate
affluence among the few whose exalted station made them worth the while
of a maiden with an indefinite future.

These friends did not prove as useful as she had hoped. At home there
were her parents to terrify theirs, and although she visited at several
chat