was frightened. In the sanctuaries, the private
confessionals of high finance (and Nelson Langmaid's office may be
called so), the more primitive emotions are sometimes exhibited.

"I don't see what business it is of a clergyman, or of any one else,
whether I own property in Dalton Street," Mr. Plimpton had said, as he
sat on the edge of the lawyer's polished mahogany desk. "What does he
expect us to do,--allow our real estate to remain unproductive merely
for sentimental reasons? That's like a parson, most of 'em haven't got
any more common sense than that. What right has he got to go nosing
around Dalton Street? Why doesn't he stick to his church?"

"I thought you fellows were to build him a settlement house there,"
Langmaid observed.

"On the condition that he wouldn't turn socialist."

"You'd better have stipulated it in the bond," said the lawyer, who
could not refrain, even at this solemn moment, from the temptation of
playing upon Mr. Plimpton's apprehensions. "I'm afraid he'll make it his
business, Wallis, to find out whether you own anything in Dalton Street.
I'll bet he's got a list of Dalton Street property in his pocket right
now."

Mr. Plimpton groaned.

"Thank God I don't own any of it!" said Langmaid.

"What the deuce does he intend to do?" the other demanded.

"Read it out in church," Langmaid suggested. "It wouldn't sound pretty,
Wallis, to be advertised in the post on Monday morning as owning that
kind of a hotel."

"Oh, he's a gentleman," said Mr. Plimpton, "he wouldn't do anything as
low as that!"

"But if he's become a socialist?" objected Langmaid.

"He wouldn't do it," his friend reiterated, none too confidently. "I
shouldn't be surprised if he made me resign from the vestry and forced
me to sell my interest. It nets me five thousand a year."

"What is the place?" Langmaid asked sympathetically, "Harrod's?"

Mr. Plimpton nodded.

"Not that I am a patron," the lawyer explained somewhat hastily. "But
I've seen the building, going home."

"It looks to me as if it would burn down some day, Wallis."

"I wish it would," said Mr. Plimpton.

"If it's any comfort to you--to us," Langmaid went on, after a moment,
"Eldon Parr owns the whole block above Thirteenth, on the south
side--bought it three years ago. He thinks the business section will
grow that way."

"I know," said Mr. Plimpton, and they looked at each other.

The name predominant in both minds had been mentioned.

"I wo