“‘Get him interested in some kind of work. He doesn’t like my business. He hates Wall Street, and, knowing it as I do, how can I blame the boy? He doesn’t take to the law––’

“‘And, knowing it as I do, how can I blame him?’ I interrupted.

“‘But, somehow, he hasn’t the spring in his bow that I had––the get-up-and-get––the disposition to move all hell if necessary.’

“‘You can’t expect it,’ I said. ‘His mainspring is broken.’

“‘What would you call his mainspring?’ he asked.

“‘The desire to win money and its power. Mind you, I wouldn’t call that a high motive, but in a young man it’s a kind of a mainspring that sets him a-going and keeps the works busy until he can get better motive power. In Harry it’s broken.’

“‘You’re right––it was busted long ago,’ said Henry Delance.

17

“‘Some one has got to contrive a new mainspring for the sons of millionaires––they’re so plenty these days.’

“‘There’s the desire to be respectable,’ he suggested.

“‘But it is not nearly so universal as the love of money. If it were possible to have millionaire carpenters and shoemakers there’d be more hope! But I’ll try to invent a mainspring for Harry. If he doesn’t marry some fool woman there’s a chance for the boy––a good chance. Tell me all about him.’

“In his own way, which amused me a little, the old man sketched the character of his son, or rather confessed it.

“‘A kind of Alexander the Great,’ he said. ‘We shall have to be careful or lose our heads. Surfeited with power, you know. When he wants anything he goes to a store and says, “Charge it.” That has ruined him. He’s no scale of values in his mind.’

“He told me, then, with some evidence 18 of alarm, that Harry had become interested in a fool woman, older than he, noted for her beauty and equestrian skill––by name Mrs. Revere-Chalmers, of a well-known Southern family. I knew the woman––divorced from a rich old gentleman of great generosity, who had taken all the blame for her sake. But I happened to know that the circumstances on her side were not creditable. The truth, however, had been well concealed.

18

“In her youth Frances Revere had two 

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