Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/230

 immediate family, Abraham Gould, Mrs. Northrup and Mrs. Palen, and their children, were gathered in the hall of the second story, where they could hear the music and prayers without being seen by those below. Some remoter relatives and their friends sat in the rear of the second drawing-room. The dining-room was filled first, and here the directors of the Union Pacific, the Manhattan Elevated and the Missouri Pacific railroads and the Western Union Telegraph Company were seated.

The shades were drawn in all the rooms and the electric lights were turned on. At 3:30 o'clock the second drawing-room, the dining-room and the hall were filled. Everybody sat silent during the half hour that elapsed before the services began. The only man who spoke at all, and he confined himself to whispers, was Russell Sage. Except the coffin, the object that attracted the most attention was the oil portrait of Jay Gould, which hung against the rear wall of the dining-room. All in that room and many in the hall could see it, and their eyes were turned toward it a large part of the time. It had been painted before Mr. Gould's illness, and looked utterly unlike the face in the coffin. Instead of the expression of peace and indifference which marked the latter, there shown out from the countenance of the portrait a look of triumph. The face of the dead man was commonplace beside that in the gilt frame.

The hour set for the beginning of the services, four o'clock, was indicated to those seated in the