as if anxious to impress her
with his importance, he said:

"Most men would be satisfied if they had accomplished what I have.
Do you realize that my wealth is so vast that I scarcely know
myself what I am worth? What my fortune will be in another fifty
years staggers the imagination. Yet I started with nothing. I made
it all myself. Surely I should get credit for that."

"_How_ did you make it?" retorted Shirley.

"In America we don't ask how a man makes his money; we ask if he
has got any."

"You are mistaken," replied Shirley earnestly. "America is waking
up. The conscience of the nation is being aroused. We are coming
to realize that the scandals of the last few years were only the
fruit of public indifference to sharp business practice. The
people will soon ask the dishonest rich man where he got it, and
there will have to be an accounting. What account will you be able
to give?"

He bit his lip and looked at her for a moment without replying.
Then, with a faint suspicion of a sneer, he said:

"You are a socialist--perhaps an anarchist!"

"Only the ignorant commit the blunder of confounding the two," she
retorted. "Anarchy is a disease; socialism is a science."

"Indeed!" he exclaimed mockingly, "I thought the terms were
synonymous. The world regards them both as insane."

Herself an enthusiastic convert to the new political faith that
was rising like a flood tide all over the world, the contemptuous
tone in which this plutocrat spoke of the coming reorganization of
society which was destined to destroy him and his kind spurred her
on to renewed argument.

"I imagine," she said sarcastically, "that you would hardly
approve any social reform which threatened to interfere with your
own business methods. But no matter how you disapprove of
socialism on general principles, as a leader of the capitalist
class you should understand what socialism is, and not confuse one
of the most important movements in modern world-history with the
crazy theories of irresponsible cranks. The anarchists are the
natural enemies of the entire human family, and would destroy it
were their dangerous doctrines permitted to prevail; the
socialists, on the contrary, are seeking to save mankind from the
degradation, the crime and the folly into which such men as you
have driven it."

She spoke impetuously, with the inspired exaltation of a prophet
delivering a message to the people. Ryder listened, concealing his
impatience wi