"I neither believe nor disbelieve. Frankly, I do not know. What people call God, Jehovah, Nature, according to my reasoning, is an astounding energy, a marvellous chemical process, created and controlled by some unknown, stupendous first cause, the origin of which man may never understand. How should he? He has not time. We are rushed into the world without preparation. We are ignorant, helpless, blind. Gradually, by dint of much physical labor and mental toil, we succeed in ferreting out a few facts regarding ourselves and the physical laws that govern us. We are just on the verge of discovering more--we are just beginning to understand and enjoy life--when suddenly we find ourselves growing old and decrepit. Our physical and mental powers fail us, and the same force that benevolently created us now mercilessly destroys us, and we are hurled, willy-nilly, back into eternity whence we came. Rather absurd, isn't it?" Intensely interested Helen looked up. Eagerly she exclaimed: "You have a whole system of philosophy in a mere handful of words, haven't you?" He smiled. "It's all one needs, and perhaps as good as those more complicated and more verbose." More seriously and lowering her voice so Ray, who was still busy at the other end of the room, might not overhear, she said: "Mr. Steell--you are so clever--you know all about everything. Tell me, do you know anything about Wall Street?" The ingenuousness of the question amused him. With a laugh he answered: "A little--to my sorrow." "It's a dangerous place, isn't it?" "Very; it has a graveyard at one end, the East River at the other, two places highly convenient at times to those who play the game." "If luck goes against him, a man could lose his all, then?" "Not only his all but the all of others, too--if he's that kind of a man." She was silent for a moment. Then she continued: "And sometimes even fine, honest men are tempted, are they not, to gamble with money which is not theirs?" "Many have done so. The prisons are full of them. There is nothing so dangerous as the get-rich-quick fever. All the men who gamble in stocks have it. It becomes a mania, an obsession. Their judgment becomes warped; they lose all sense of right and wrong." "There's something else I want to ask you. What do you think of Signor Keralio?" He hesitated a moment before he answered. Then, with some warmth, he said: