of these copies fell to Theobald's share on the division of his
father's furniture, and I have often seen them at Battersby on my
visits to Theobald and his wife. The one was a Madonna by Sassoferrato
with a blue hood over her head which threw it half into shadow. The
other was a Magdalen by Carlo Dolci with a very fine head of hair
and a marble vase in her hands. When I was a young man I used to think
these pictures were beautiful, but with each successive visit to
Battersby I got to dislike them more and more and to see "George
Pontifex" written all over both of them. In the end I ventured after a
tentative fashion to blow on them a little, but Theobald and his
wife were up in arms at once. They did not like their father and
father-in-law, but there could be no question about his power and
general ability, nor about his having been a man of consummate taste
both in literature and art- indeed the diary he kept during his
foreign tour was enough to prove this. With one more short extract I
will leave this diary and proceed with my story. During his stay in
Florence Mr. Pontifex wrote: "I have just seen the Grand Duke and
his family pass by in two carriages and six, but little more notice is
taken of them than if I, who am utterly unknown here, were to pass
by." I don't think that he half believed in his being utterly
unknown in Florence or anywhere else!

   CHAPTER V

  FORTUNE, we are told, is a blind and fickle foster-mother who
showers her gifts at random upon her nurslings. But we do her a
grave injustice if we believe such an accusation. Trace a man's career
from his cradle to his grave and mark how Fortune has treated him. You
will find that when he is once dead she can for the most part be
vindicated from the charge of any but very superficial fickleness. Her
blindness is the merest fable; she can espy her favourites long before
they are born. We are as days and have had our parents for our
yesterdays, but through all the fair weather of a clear parental sky
the eye of Fortune can discern the coming storm, and she laughs as she
places her favourites it may be in a London alley or those whom she is
resolved to ruin in kings' palaces. Seldom does she relent towards
those whom she has suckled unkindly and seldom does she completely
fail a favoured nursling.

  Was George Pontifex one of Fortune's favoured nurslings or not? On
the whole I should say that he was not, for he did not consider
himself so; he was too religious to consider Fortune a deity at all;
he took whatever she gave and never thanked her, being firmly
convinced that whatever he got to his own advantage was of his own
getting. And so it was, after Fortune had made him able to get it.

  "Nos te, nos facimus, Fortuna, deam," exclaimed the poet. "It is
we who make thee, Fortune, a goddess"; and so it is, after Fortune has
made us able to make her. The poet says nothing as to the making of
the "nos." Perhaps some men are independent of antecedents and
surroundings and have an initial force within themselves which is in
no way due to causation; but this is supposed to be a difficult
question and it may be as well to avoid it. Let it suffice that George
Pontifex did not consider himself fortunate, and he who does not
consider himself fortunate is unfortunate.

  True, he was rich, universally respected and of an excellent natural
constitution. If he had eaten and drunk less he would never have known
a day's indisposition. Perhaps his main strength lay in the fact
that though his capacity was a little above the average, it was not
too much so. It is on this rock that so many clever people split.
The successful man will see just so much more than his neighbours,
as they will be able to see too when it is shown them, but not
enough to puzzle them. It is far safer to know too little than too
much. People will condemn the one, though they will resent being
called upon to exert themselves to follow the other. The best
example of Mr. Pontifex's good sense in matters connected with his
business which I can think of at this moment is the revolution which
he effected in the style of advertising works published by the firm.
When he first became a partner one of the firm's advertisements ran
thus:

  "Books proper to be given away at this Season.

  "The Pious Country Parishioner, being directions how a Christian may
manage every day in the course of his whole life with safety and
success; how to spend the Sabbath Day; what books of the Holy
Scriptures ought to be read first; the whole method of education;
collects for the most important virtues that adorn the soul; a
discourse on the Lord's Supper; rules to set the soul right in
sickness; so that in this treatise are contained all the rules
requisite for salvation. The 8th edition with additions. Price 10d.

  ** An allowance will be made to those who give them away."

  Before he had been many years a partner the advertisement stood as
follows:

  "The Pious Country Parishioner. A complete manual of Christian
Devotion. Price 10d.

  "A reduction will be made to purchasers for gratuitous
distribution."

  What a stride is made in the foregoing towards the modern
standard, and what intelligence is involved in the perception of the
unseemliness of the old style, when others did not perceive it!

  Where then was the weak place in George Pontifex's armour? I suppose
in the fact that he had risen too rapidly. It would almost seem as