His wife and her kinsfolk exhibited no brilliancy in holding a
totally irresponsible man down to responsibilities, and they made a
tragedy of a not surprising fiasco. Mrs. Fisbee had lived in her
ambitions, and she died of heartbreak over the discovery of what manner of
man she had married. But, before she died, she wisely provided for her
daughter.
Fisbee told Parker the story after his own queer fashion.
"You see, Mr. Parker," he said, as they sat together in the dust and
litter of the "Herald" office, on Sunday afternoon, "you see, I admit that
my sister-in-law has always withheld her approbation from me, and possibly
her disapproval is well founded--I shall say probably. My wife had also a
considerable sum, and this she turned over to me at the time of our
marriage, though I had no wish regarding it one way or the other. When I
gave my money to the university with which I had the honor to be
connected, I added to it the fund I had received from her, as I was the
recipient of a comfortable salary as a lecturer in the institution and had
no fear of not living well, and I was greatly interested in providing that
the expedition should be perfectly equipped. Expeditions of the magnitude
of that which I had planned are expensive, I should, perhaps, inform you,
and this one was to carry on investigations regarding several important
points, very elaborately; and I am still convinced it would have settled
conclusively many vital questions concerning the derivation of the
Babylonian column, as: whether the lotus column may be without prejudice
said to--but at the present moment I will not enter into that.
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