sband. In spite of Felicia's efforts,
she had compelled Clara to support her while she crossed the hall
and entered the room where her husband lay. She had looked upon him
with a tearless face, had gone back to her own room, was laid on her
bed, and as Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the house she, with a
prayer of forgiveness for herself and for her husband on her
quivering lips, had died, with Felicia bending over her and Rose
still lying senseless at her feet.

So great and swift had been the entrance of grim Death into that
palace of luxury that Sunday night! But the full cause of his coming
was not learned until the facts in regard to Mr. Sterling's business
affairs were finally disclosed.

Then it was learned that for some time he had been facing financial
ruin owing to certain speculations that had in a month's time swept
his supposed wealth into complete destruction. With the cunning and
desperation of a man who battles for his very life when he saw his
money, which was all the life he ever valued, slipping from him, he
had put off the evil day to the last moment. Sunday afternoon,
however, he had received news that proved to him beyond a doubt the
fact of his utter ruin. The very house that he called his, the
chairs in which he sat, his carriage, the dishes from which he ate,
had all been bought with money for which he himself had never really
done an honest stroke of pure labor.

It had all rested on a tissue of deceit and speculation that had no
foundation in real values. He knew that fact better than any one
else, but he had hoped, with the hope such men always have, that the
same methods that brought him the money would also prevent the loss.
He had been deceived in this as many others have been. As soon as
the truth that he was practically a beggar had dawned upon him, he
saw no escape from suicide. It was the irresistible result of such a
life as he had lived. He had made money his god. As soon as that god
was gone out of his little world there was nothing more to worship;
and when a man's object of worship is gone he has no more to live
for. Thus died the great millionaire, Charles R. Sterling. And,
verily, he died as the fool dieth, for what is the gain or the loss
of money compared with the unsearchable riches of eternal life which
are beyond the reach of speculation, loss or change?

Mrs. Sterling's death was the result of the shock. She had not been
taken into her husband's confidence for years