CHAPTER I
The Delroys
ALTHOUGH Richard Delroy was known among his more familiar associates as Dickie, he was not, as that diminutive might seem to indicate, merely a good fellow and man about town. It is true that his wealth was great, and that he had never settled down to that steady struggle for money which had marked his father’s career, and which many persons seem to think the only fitting employment for a man in his position. He had concluded, wisely perhaps, that he had enough, and thereupon proceeded to an intelligent enjoyment of it.
He had an office in the Wall Street district, where he spent some hours daily in interested contemplation of the world’s markets and pregnant talks with investors, promoters, and beggars of various denominations. He had a fondness for books and art, finer and deeper than a mere mania for purchasing rare editions and unique masterpieces; he was a member of the Citizens’ Union and contributed freely to every effort to suppress political graft and corruption; he was vice-chairman of the University Settlement Society, and belonged to many other politico-evangelical organisations. He had built two or three model tenements, after that voyage of discovery among the slums of London, which had also resulted, as we have seen, in his meeting the woman who became his wife.
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