Her metamorphosis was gradual but complete.  I imagine that her first reluctance to essay an acquaintance with society arose out of embarrassment and bashfulness.  At any rate she no sooner discovered how small a bluff was necessary for success than she easily outdid me in the ingenuity and finesse of her social strategy.  It seemed to be instinctive with her.  She was always revising her calling lists and cutting out people who were no longer socially useful; and having got what she could out of a new acquaintance, she would forget her as completely as if she had never made her the confidante of her inmost thoughts about other and less socially desirable people.

It seems a bit cold-blooded—­this criticism of one’s wife; but I know that, however much of a sycophant I may have been in my younger days, my wife has outdone me since then.  Presently we were both in the swim, swept off our feet by the current and carried down the river of success, willy-nilly, toward its mouth—­to a safe haven, I wonder, or the deluge of a devouring cataract?

* * * * *

The methods I adopted are those in general use, either consciously or unconsciously, among people striving for success in business, politics or society in New York.  It is a struggle for existence, precisely like that which goes on in the animal world.  Only those who have strength or cunning survive to achieve success.  Might makes right to an extent little dreamed of by most of us.  Nobody dares to censure or even mildly criticize one who has influence enough to do him harm.  We are interested only in safeguarding or adding to the possessions we have already secured.  We are wise enough to “play safe.”  To antagonize one who might assist in depriving us of some of them is contrary to the laws of Nature.

Our thoughts are for ourselves and our children alone.  The devil take everybody else!  We are safe, warm and comfortable ourselves; we exist without actual labor; and we desire our offspring to enjoy the same ease and safety.  The rest of mankind is nothing to us, except a few people it is worth our while to be kind to—­personal servants and employees.  We should not hesitate to break all ten of the Commandments rather than that we and our children should lose a few material comforts.  Anything, save that we should have really to work for a living!

There are essentially two sorts of work:  first—­genuine labor, which requires all a man’s concentrated physical or mental effort; and second—­that work which takes the laborer to his office at ten o’clock and, after an easy-going administrative morning, sets him at liberty at three or four.

The officer of an uptown trust company or bank is apt to belong to the latter class.  Or perhaps one is in real estate and does business at the dinner tables of his friends.  He makes love and money at the same time.  His salary and commissions correspond somewhat to the unearned increment on the freeholds in which he deals.  These are minor illustrations, but a majority of the administrative positions in our big corporations carry salaries out of all proportion to the services rendered.