He will overshadow you."
"The rivalry must be on his side alone," was Mr. Wallingford's
reply. "No elegance or imposing grandeur that he may assume, can
disturb me in the smallest degree. I shall only feel pity for the
defect of happiness that all his blandishments must hide."
"A splendid Italian villa is talked of."
Mr. Wallingford shook his head.
"You doubt all this?" said I.
"Not the man's ambitious pride; but his ability to do what pride
suggests. He and his compeers are poorer, by a hundred thousand
dollars, than they deemed themselves a few short months ago."
"Have they met with heavy losses?" I asked, not understanding the
drift of his remark.
"The estate in trust has been withdrawn."
"How should that make them poorer?"
"It makes them poorer, in the first place, as to the means for
carrying on business. And it makes them poorer, in the second place,
in the loss of an estate, which, I am sorry to believe, Mr. Dewey
and a part of his New York associates regarded as virtually their
own.
"But the heir was approaching his majority," said I.
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