sciousness of dental trouble and exchanged glances of
mutual encouragement.

Mr. Saunderson blinked at them genially behind his gold-rimmed glasses
and spoke of the weather, which was bad, dilated on the state of the
streets, lamented the slowness of the L. C. C. to enforce the use of
Patrimondi beyond the limits of Westminster, and as the futile little
remarks trickled on they carried with them his complacent smile, for
in every quiet response he read Christopher Masters' fatal
determination, and prepared himself for battle. It was Christopher,
however, who flung down the gauntlet. He answered the question anent
the use of Patrimondi in the metropolis, and then said directly:

"Mr. Saunderson, I've considered the matter of this fortune you tell
me I've inherited, and I do not feel under any obligation to accept it
or its responsibilities. It's only fair to let you know this at
once."

Mr. Saunderson leant back in his chair and rubbed his chin, and his
eyes wandered from one to the other of his visitors thoughtfully.

"The matter is far too complicated to be disposed of so lightly, I
fear," he remarked, shaking his head. "Let me place the details of the
thing before you and as a business man you can then judge for
yourself."

He had at least no fault to find with the grave attention they paid
him, indeed, the entirely unemotional attitude of the younger man was
to the lawyer's mind the most alarming symptom he had noted. Still he
could not allow to himself that his task presented more than
surmountable difficulties, for Mr. Saunderson had no real knowledge of
the forces at work against him, of the silent, desperate woman who had
given her life for her faith, who had once been beautiful, and whose
worn body slept in the little dull cemetery at Whitmansworth.

"I believe you are acquainted with the great premises known as Princes
Buildings," began Mr. Saunderson, "that simplifies my task. For the
whole affair is so amazingly managed that I can offer you no precedent
with which to compare it. There are seven floors in that building, and
on each floor the affairs of the six great concerns in which Mr.
Masters was interested, are conducted. Such an arrangement was only
carried out at enormous expense and trouble. I may tell you, however,
that the condition of Mr. Masters' interesting himself in either of
the companies, was their domicile beneath this one roof. Now in five
of these big concerns he occupied merely the p