epidemic or wholesale maiming, by which the partners of the
banking-house and all in authority over her lover should be
temporarily incapacitated, and the entire burden of the business be
thrown on his shoulders long enough to demonstrate his true worth. As
a sequel she beheld him promptly admitted to partnership and herself
blissfully married.

The course of events did not respect her vision. After they had been
engaged nearly four years Sir Galahad came to the conclusion one day
that the only hope of establishing himself in business on his own
account was (to repeat his own metaphor) to seize the bull by the
horns and go West. Marion bravely and enthusiastically seconded his
resolution, and fired his spirit by her own prophecy as to his rapid
success. Western real estate for Eastern investors was the line of
business to which Sir Galahad decided to fasten his hopes. He set
forth upon his crusade protesting that within a twelvemonth he would
win a home for Marion and her mother in the fashionable quarter of St.
Paul, Minn., and carrying in his valise a toilet-case tastefully
embroidered by his sweetheart, in a corner of which were emblazoned
two hearts beating as one.

Marion returned to her scholars more than ever convinced that her
employment was but a transient occupation. What followed was this: Sir
Galahad put out his sign as a broker in Western real estate for
Eastern investors, and fifteen months slipped away before he earned
more than his bare living expenses. He had carried with him his poetic
tastes and his gift for private theatricals. The first of these he
exercised in his fond letters home; the second he employed for the
entertainment of the social club in St. Paul, to which he presently
obtained admittance. By the end of the second year he was doing better