He
could not speak to the child of the shame of her mother; she could not
speak of that in him which had contributed to that mother's shame--the
neglect which existed to some degree in her own life with him. This was
chiefly so because his enterprises had grown to such a number and height,
that he seemed ever to be counting them, ever struggling to the height,
while none of his ventures ever reached that state of success when it
"ran itself", although as years passed men called him rich, and he spent
and loaned money so freely that they called him the Money Master, or the
Money Man Wise, in deference to his philosophy.
Zoe was not beautiful, but there was a wondrous charm in her deep brown
eyes and in the expression of her pretty, if irregular, features.
Sometimes her face seemed as small as that of a young child, and alive
with eerie fancies; and always behind her laughter was something which
got into her eyes, giving them a haunting melancholy. She had no signs of
hysteria, though now and then there came heart-breaking little outbursts
of emotion which had this proof that they were not hysteria--they were
never seen by others. They were sacred to her own solitude. While in
Montreal she had tasted for the first time the joys of the theatre, and
had then secretly read numbers of plays, which she bought from an old
bookseller, who was wise enough to choose them for her.
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