ve you there?" the lady inquired.

"Women have great curiosity," said Mr. Belcher, slapping his knee with
the little volume.

"And men delight to excite it," she responded.

"The General is a business man, and you want to know how he does it,"
said he.

"I do, upon my word," responded the lady.

"Very well, the General has two kinds of business, and he never mixes
one with the other."

"I don't understand."

"Well, you know he's a manufacturer--got his start in that way. So he
keeps that business by itself, and when he operates in Wall street, he
operates outside of it. He never risks a dollar that he makes in his
regular business in any outside operation."

"And you have it all in the little book?"

"Would you like to see it?"

"Yes."

"Very well, you shall, when I've told you all about it. I suppose that
it must have been ten years ago that a man came to Sevenoaks who was
full of all sorts of inventions. I tried some of them, and they worked
well; so I went on furnishing money to him, and, at last, I furnished so
much that he passed all his rights into my hands--sold everything to me.
He got into trouble, and lost his head--went into an insane hospital,
where I supported him for more than two years. Then he was sent back as
incurable, and, of course, had to go to the poor house. I couldn't
support him always, you know. I'd paid him fairly, run all the risk,
and felt that my hands were clean."

"He had sold everything to you, hadn't he?" inquired Mrs. Dillingham,
sympathetically.

"Certainly, I have the contract, legally drawn, signed, and delivered."

"People couldn't blame you, of course."

"But they did."

"How could they, if you paid him all that belonged to him?"

"That's Sevenoaks. That's the thing that drove me away. Benedict
escaped, and they all supposed he was dead, and fancied that because I
had made money out of him, I was responsible for him in some way. But I
punished them. They'll remember me."

And Mr. Belcher laughed a brutal laugh that rasped Mrs. Dillingham's
sensibilities almost beyond endurance.

"And, now," said the General, resuming, "this man Balfour means to get
these patents that I've owned and used for from seven to ten years out
of me. Perhaps he will do it, but it will be after the biggest fight
that New York ever saw."

Mrs. Dillingham eyed the little book. She was very curious about it. She
was delightfully puzzled to know how these men who had the power of
mak