Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE THREE FATES
CHAPTER I.
Jonah Wood was bitterly disappointed in his son.During five and twenty years he had looked in vain forthe development of those qualities in George, whichalone, in his opinion, could insure success. But thoughGeorge could talk intelligently about the great movementsof business in New York, it was clear by this timethat he did not possess what his father called businessinstincts. The old man could have forgiven him hisdefective appreciation in the matter of dollars and cents,however, if he had shown the slightest inclination toadopt one of the regular professions; in other words, ifGeorge had ceased to waste his time in the attempt toearn money with his pen, and had submitted to becominga scribe in a lawyer’s office, old Wood would havebeen satisfied. The boy’s progress might have beenslow, but it would have been sure.
It was strange to see how this elderly man, who hadbeen ruined by the exercise of his own business faculties,still pinned his faith upon his own views and theoriesof finance, and regarded it as a real misfortune tobe the father of a son who thought differently from himself.It would have satisfied the height of his ambition2to see George installed as a clerk on a nominal salary inone of the