Hiram Briggs Founds an Art School—The Wealthy Button
Manufacturer Dedicates His New Edifice—Cost $500,000—A
Memorial to His Late Wife.
—“That’s the one,” said Miss Esther, decidedly. “I need look no
further. A man who is loving enough to erect such a memorial to his dead
wife, and who is rich enough to spend $500,000 on it, and who is clever
enough to have got rich on buttons, and who is sensible enough to be
named Hiram Briggs, is just the man to take care of that artistic
temperament of Lillian Hastings. He will act as a blender to her sharply
colored views of life. Where does this altogether desirable man live? I
will write to him to-night. Of course, Lillian may object to the
buttons, but when she realizes Mr. Briggs’s devotion to Art, she will
see the matter in its right light, I am sure.”
Miss Esther skimmed through the article quickly and discovered that Mr.
Briggs was a citizen of Nashua, New Hampshire. This was entirely
satisfactory, and the further details of the story also confirmed her
good opinion of the man.
“He ought to get my letter by the day after to-morrow,” she thought,
“which will give him ample time to take Lillian abroad this summer. They
ought to sail by the fifteenth of August, I should think. And I shall
give her one of those lovely traveling-bags furnished with any number of
silver things. It must be such fun to find out what they’re all for, and
I should think her honeymoon would just about give her time enough.”