fter a few moments, however, he had
collected himself sufficiently to move on once more, when he discovered
that he was repeating to himself, quite unconsciously, Mr. Hill's
profanity "I wish to hell I wasn't." The iron mastiffs glaring at him
angrily out of the snow banks reminded him that he was in front of Mr.
Worthington's door, and he thought he might as well go in at once and
receive the great man's gratitude. He certainly deserved it. But as he
put his hand on the bell Mr. Worthington himself came out of the house,
and would actually have gone by without noticing Mr. Dodd if he had not
spoken.

"I've got that little matter fixed, Mr. Worthington," he said, "called
the committee, and we voted to discharge the--the young woman." No, he
did not deliver Judge Graves's message.

"Very well, Mr. Dodd," answered the great man, passing on so that Mr.
Dodd was obliged to follow him in order to hear, "I'm glad you've come to
your senses at last. Kindly step into the library and tell Miss Bruce
from me that she may fill the place to-morrow."

"Certain," said Mr. Dodd, with his hand to his chin. He watched the great
man turn in at his bank in the new block, and then he did as he was bid.

By the time school was out that day the news had leaped across Brampton
Street and spread up and down both sides of it that the new teacher had
been dismissed. The story ran fairly straight--there were enough clews,
certainly. The great man's return, the visit of Mr. Dodd, the call on
Judge Graves, all had been marked. The fiat of the first citizen had gone
forth that the ward of Jethro Bass must be got rid of; the designing
young woman who had sought to entrap his son must be punished for her
amazing effrontery.

Cynthia came out of school happily unaware that her name was on the lips
of Brampton: unaware, too, that the lord of the place had come into
residence that day. She had looked forward to living in the same town
with Bob's father as an evil which was necessary to be borne, as one of
the things which are more or less inevitable in the lives of those who
have to make their own ways in the world. The children trooped around
her, and the little girls held her hand, and she talked and laughed with
them as she came up the street in the eyes of Brampton,--came up the
street to the block of new buildings where the bank was. Stepping out of
the bank, with that businesslike alertness which characterized him, was
the first citizen--none