It was shortly after he had won this place
that he met my mother."
The caressing fondness with which he uttered the last word imparted to
his seemingly supreme beauty an added warmth of appeal.
"Her, too, you have met in the Advertising Columns. She had begun to
teach school when a mere girl; but when her father's death threw upon
her young shoulders the burden of three little children and a helpless
mother, she had risen to her greater needs. She succeeded in quadrupling
her income by learning to write short stories, criticism, and verse,
from a literary bureau which charged her a nominal fee for instruction
and purchased her output at extremely generous rates for disposal among
the leading magazines. When my father first saw her--it was in the
course of a Fourth of July excursion to Niagara Falls which, including a
three days' stay at the best hotels, was offered to the public at half
the usual cost--she had sent the eldest boy through college, her younger
sister was teaching school, and she was free to follow the inclinations
of her heart."
"You were fortunate in the selection of your immediate ancestry," said
Harding.
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