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doing fairly well once more. What did this mean? Mrs. Cowperwood, his former wife,
condemned his actions, and yet accepted of his prosperity as her due. What were the ethics of
that?
Cowperwood's every action was known to Aileen Butler, his present whereabouts and
prospects. Not long after his wife's divorce, and after many trips to and from this new world in
which he was now living, these two left Philadelphia together one afternoon in the winter. Aileen
explained to her mother, who was willing to go and live with Norah, that she had fallen in love
with the former banker and wished to marry him. The old lady, gathering only a garbled version
of it at first, consented.
Thus ended forever for Aileen this long-continued relationship with this older world. Chicago
was before her--a much more distinguished career, Frank told her, than ever they could have
had in Philadelphia.
"Isn't it nice to be finally going?" she commented.
"It is advantageous, anyhow," he said.
Concerning Mycteroperca Bonaci
There is a certain fish, the scientific name of which is Mycteroperca Bonaci, its common name
Black Grouper, which is of considerable value as an afterthought in this connection, and which
deserves to be better known. It is a healthy creature, growing quite regularly to a weight of two
hundred and fifty pounds, and lives a comfortable, lengthy existence because of its very
remarkable ability to adapt itself to conditions. That very subtle thing which we call the creative
power, and which we endow with the spirit of the beatitudes, is supposed to build this mortal life
in such fashion that only honesty and virtue shall prevail. Witness, then, the significant manner
in which it has fashioned the black grouper. One might go far afield and gather less forceful
indictments--the horrific spider spinning his trap for the unthinking fly; the lovely Drosera
(Sundew) using its crimson calyx for a smothering-pit in which to seal and devour the victim of
its beauty; the rainbow-colored jellyfish that spreads its prismed tentacles like streamers of great
beauty, only to sting and torture all that falls within their radiant folds. Man himself is busy
digging the pit and fashioning the snare, but he will not believe it. His feet are in the trap of
circumstance; his eyes are on an illusion.
Mycteroperca moving in its dark world of green waters is as fine an illustration of the
constructive genius of nature, which is not beatific, as any which the mind of man may discover.
Its great superiority lies in an almost unbelievable power of simulation, which relates solely to
the pigmentation of its skin. In electrical mechanics we pride ourselves on our ability to make
over one brilliant scene into another in the twinkling of an eye, and flash before the gaze of an
onlooker picture after picture, which appear and disappear as we look. The directive control of
Mycteroperca over its appearance is much more significant. You cannot look at it long without
feeling that you are witnessing something spectral and unnatural, so brilliant is its power to
deceive. From being black it can become instantly white; from being an earth-colored brown it
can fade into a delightful water-colored green. Its markings change as the clouds of the sky.
One marvels at the variety and subtlety of its power.
Lying at the bottom of a bay, it can simulate the mud by which it is surrounded. Hidden in the
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