The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories

  Chapter III

  "Choose again." It was the fairy speaking.

  "The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three giftsremain. Only one of them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily."

  The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, wenther way.

  Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he satsolitary in the fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:

  "My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and itseemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! Thencame envy; then detraction; then calumny; then hate; then persecution.Then derision, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all camepity, which is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery ofrenown! target for mud in its prime, for contempt and compassion in itsdecay."