He had never told
himself that he had outgrown the kind and pretty creature he had married
in his early youth, and certainly his tender care for her and pleasure
in her simple goodness had never wavered, but Betty had given him a
companionship which had counted greatly in the sum of his happiness.
Because imagination was not suspected in him, no one knew what she stood
for in his life. He had no son; he stood at the head of a great
house, so to speak--the American parallel of what a great house is in
non-republican countries. The power of it counted for great things, not
in America alone, but throughout the world. As international intimacies
increased, the influence of such houses might end in aiding in the
making of history. Enormous constantly increasing wealth and huge
financial schemes could not confine their influence, but must reach far.
The man whose hand held the lever controlling them was doing well when
he thought of them gravely. Such a man had to do with more than his own
mere life and living. This man had confronted many problems as the years
had passed. He had seen men like himself die, leaving behind them the
force they had controlled, and he had seen this force--controlled no
longer--let loose upon the world, sometimes a power of evil, sometimes
scattering itself aimlessly into nothingness and folly, which wrought
harm.
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