-his was a voice that left his
hearers doubtful whether he meant what his words said or the reverse.

Culver looked with secret admiration from one man to the other, and
continued to think of them and to admire, after they had gone. He felt
important, sitting in and by proxy directing the councils of these
powerful men, these holders and manipulators of the secret strings
whereto were attached puppet peoples and puppet politicians. Seven
years behind the scenes with Dumont's most private affairs had given
him a thoroughgoing contempt for the mass of mankind. Did he not sit
beside the master, at the innermost wheels, deep at the very heart of
the intricate mechanism? Did not that position make him a sort of
master, at any rate far superior to the princeliest puppet?

At five the next afternoon--the afternoon of the day before the
convention--he was at the Eyrie, and sent a servant to say to Mrs.
Dumont that he would like to see her. She came down to him in the
library.

"I'm only troubling you for a moment," he said.

"I'll relieve you of my package."

"Very well," said Pauline. "I haven't thought of it since day before
yesterday. I'll bring it down to you."

She left him in the library and went up the stairs--she had been
reading everything that was published about the coming convention, and
the evident surprise of all the politicians at the strength Scarborough
was mustering for ex-Governor Bowen had put her in high good humor.
She cautioned herself that he could not carry the convention; but his
showing was a moral victory--and what a superb personal triumph! With
everything against him--money and the machine and the skilful confusing
of the issues by his crafty opponents--he had rallied about him almost
all that was really intelligent in his party; and he had demonstrated
that he had on his side a mass of the voters large out of all
proportion to the number of delegates he had wrested away from the
machine--nearly three hundred, when everybody had supposed the machine
would retain all but a handful.

Money! Her lips curled scornfully--out here, in her own home, among
these simple people, the brutal power of money was master just as in
New York, among a people crazed by the passion for luxury and display.

She was kneeling before the safe, was working the combination, paper in
hand. The knob clicked as the rings fell into place; she turned the
bolt and swung the door open. She reached into the safe