He felt that he ought to be sorry Mr.
Lancaster was dead, and he tried to be sorry for his wife.

He started to write her a letter of condolence, but stopped at the first line, and could get no further.

Yet several times a day, for many days, she recurred to him, each time giving him a feeling of dissatisfaction, until at length he was able to banish her from his mind.
Prosperity is like the tide.

It comes, each wave higher and higher, until it almost appears that it will never end, and then suddenly it seems to ebb a little, comes up again, recedes again, and, before one knows it, is passing away as surely as it came.
Just when Keith thought that his tide was in full flood, it began to ebb without any apparent cause, and before he was aware of it, the prosperity which for the last few years had been setting in so steadily in those mountain regions had passed away, and New Leeds and he were left stranded upon the rocks.
Rumor came down to New Leeds from the North.

The Wickersham enterprises were said to be hard hit by some of the failures which had occurred.
A few weeks later Keith heard that Mr.Aaron Wickersham was dead.