As a rule, man is a proud animal and he doesn't like to tell anything which doesn't redound to his credit.

If a man buys bonds, for instance, he is very apt to mention it to his family.

But if for any reason he has to sell those bonds, he will nearly always do it quietly and say nothing about it, hoping to buy them back again later, or something better yet-- "I've seen so many estates," he continued, "shrink into next to nothing--so many widows who thought they were well off, suddenly waking up and finding themselves at the mercy of the world--the little they have often being taken away from them by the first glib sharper who comes long--that I sometimes think every man should give his family a show-down once a year.

It would surely save a lot of worries and heartaches later on-- "Still," he smiled, looking down at the inventory, with its noble line of figures at the bottom of the column, "I don't think you'll have much trouble in keeping the wolf from the door." Mary turned the pages in a helpless sort of way.
"You'll have to explain some of this," she said at last.

But before giving it back to him she looked out of the window for a time--one of her slow, thoughtful glances--and added, "I wonder why girls aren't brought up to know something about business--the way boys are." "Perhaps it's because they have no head for business." She thought that over.
"Can you speak French ?" she suddenly asked.
"No." "...I can.