Theodore Dreiser

The Titan Theodore Dreiser

It would be useless to repeat how a second panic following upon a tremendous failure-that ofJay Cooke & Co.-had placed a second fortune in his hands. This restored wealth softened him insome degree. Fate seemed to have his personal welfare in charge. He was sick of the stock-exchange, anyhow, as a means of livelihood, and now decided that he would leave it once and for all. He wouldget in something else-street-railways, land deals, some of the boundless opportunities of the farWest. Philadelphia was no longer pleasing to him. Though now free and rich, he was still a scandalto the pretenders, and the financial and social world was not prepared to accept him. He must go hisway alone, unaided, or only secretly so, while his quondam friends watched his career from afar. So, thinking of this, he took the train one day, his charming mistress, now only twenty-six, coming tothe station to see him off. He looked at her quite tenderly, for she was the quintessence of a certaintype of feminine beauty."By-by, dearie," he smiled, as the train-bell signaled the approaching departure. "You and I willget out of this shortly. Don't grieve. I'll be back in two or three weeks, or I'll send for you. I'd takeyou now, only I don't know how that country is out there. We'll fix on some place, and then youwatch me settle this fortune question. We'll not live under a cloud always. I'll get a divorce, and we'llmarry, and things will come right with a bang. Money will do that."