Gordon Wright, indeed, had inherited a large estate.

Their wants being tolerably modest, they had not been tempted to strive for the glory of building up commercial fortunes--the most obvious career open to young Americans.

They had, indeed, embraced no career at all, and if summoned to give an account of themselves would, perhaps, have found it hard to tell any very impressive story.

Gordon Wright was much interested in physical science, and had ideas of his own on what is called the endowment of research.

His ideas had taken a practical shape, and he had distributed money very freely among the investigating classes, after which he had gone to spend a couple of years in Germany, supposing it to be the land of laboratories.