income was five hundred dollars--in my thirty-fourth year it was
thirty thousand and earned by my own efforts, out of a business
that I alone had created; for the business of that time bore no
relation whatever to the one in which I succeeded my old employer.
Surely I had cause for congratulation, no matter how dull business
might be for the time being.

Knollwood had been growing these years with astonishing rapidity,
and our social circle was now a fairly large one.

The characteristics, so attractive the first year of our residence
there, were still unchanged. The newcomers were all nice people
and the right hand of good-fellowship was extended and accepted in
the true spirit.

In addition to the many beautiful new houses there had been erected
a small but very pretty stone church of Episcopalian denomination.

At the time the building of the church was planned, I remember a
conversation on the subject that afterwards seemed prophetic.

I was talking on the train with a gentleman, an officer of the New
York Life Insurance Company, who, while he did not reside in the
Park, lived in the vicinity and mingled socially with our people.
I told him we were going to build a church. "What"? he said. "Don't
do it; you have a charming social circle now that will surely be
ruined if you do." I expressed surprise at his remark, and he only
shook his head and with more earnestness added, "Mark my words,
that church will be the commencement of social trouble; cliques will
form, friction and gossip will arise, and your delightful social