she had all the time wanted of him, she felt outraged and
offended!

These thoughts kept her long by the fire, and accompanied her to her
chamber. "Elizabeth Waldron," said she to her mirror, "you are going
insane! Aren't you ashamed that now, when he has shown his love and
understanding of the things you love and try to understand, and
surprised you by the possession of the very qualities you have felt
secretly regretful on account of his not having--that you feel--that
way? What ails you, that you begin to feel toward the dearest man in
all the world as if he were a stranger?--Ah, but you do, you do! And
you'll never be happy with him, nor even make him happy!--And, oh, that
letter, that letter! That awful letter for him to read on the cars!
If you had never written that!"

"What's my manager's name--Stevens?" asked Mr. Amidon of Judge
Blodgett. "Yes? Well, I'm going to have trouble with him! I won't be
bullied by my clerks. And who is the next man?"

"Alderson," said the judge. "It's all in the notes, you know."

"And very convenient, too," said Amidon. "And who is the stenographer?"

"Miss Strong," answered the judge.

"Strong, Strong," said Amidon musingly. "The author, I believe, by the
notes?"

"I never said she was!" protested the judge. "Not positively, but
only----"

"Well, let's go down--or perhaps I had better go alone," said Florian.
"Please come down in an hour or so, won't you?"

The judge noted for the first time the decision of returning confidence
in Amidon's manner. Two things contributed to this: the first was the
sense of something tangible and intelligible in this going down to
business in the morning like an ordinary American; and the other was
rising anger at the attack made on him by this man Stevens in the
street last night. What sort of discipline can there be in the
business, thought he, when an employee dares use such language toward
his employer? A good towering passion is a great steadier of the
nerves, sometimes. He walked into the counting-room, saw his name and
the word "Private" on the glass of a certain door, went boldly beyond
it, and was followed by a young woman with a note-book and pencil.
Presently, in came Mr. Stevens without knocking.

"Here's another pretty how-de-do!" he exclaimed, without any greeting
except an angry snort. "You promised to sign that contract for the
output of the Bunn's Ferry wells while you were in New York, and
didn't! Th