set. His luxuriously furnished rooms, his expensive suppers and his
acquaintance with dancing-girls were talked about, and he soon had a
reputation for being one of the wildest youngsters of his class.

"Your son will spend all the money you can make for him," said one of
his friends to Mr. Wickersham.

"Well," said the father, "I hope he will have as much pleasure in
spending it as I have had in making it, that's all."

He not only gave Ferdy all the money he suggested a need for, but he
offered him large bonuses in case he should secure any of the honors he
had heard of as the prizes of the collegiate work.

Mrs. Wickersham was very eager for him to win this particular prize.
Apart from her natural ambition, she had a special reason. The firm of
Norman Wentworth & Son was one of the oldest and best-known houses in
the country. The home of Norman Wentworth was known to be one of the
most elegant in the city, as it was the most exclusive, and both Mr. and
Mrs. Wentworth were recognized as representatives of the old-time
gentry. Mrs. Wickersham might have endured the praise of the elegance of
the mansion. She had her own ideas as to house-furnishing, and the
Wentworth mansion was furnished in a style too quiet and antiquated to
suit her more modern tastes. If it was filled with old mahogany and hung
with damask-satin, Mrs. Wickersham had carved walnut and gorgeous
hangings. And as to those white marble busts, and those books that were
everywhere, she much preferred her brilliant figures which she "had
bought in Europe," and books were "a nuisance about a house." They ought
to be kept in a library, as she kept hers--in a carved-walnut case with
glass doors.