His wife was from one of the county families; without fortune, indeed, but with all the advantages of high connections, which lifted him above the rank of mere business men, and admitted him into society hitherto closed even to the head partner in the old bank; in spite even of the fact that he still occupied the fine old house adjoining the bank premises.

There was scarcely a townsman who was held to be his equal; not one who was considered his superior.

Though he was little over thirty yet, he was at the head of all municipal affairs.

He had already held the office of mayor for one year, and might have been re-elected, if his wife had not somewhat scorned the homely bourgeois dignity.

There was no more popular man in the whole town than he was.
But he had been building on the sands, and the storm was rising.