nd obtain
his written assurance that no further attempt will be made to run a
train on the P.Q. & R., there's no objection. The brotherhood of Railway
Trainmen stands ready and eager to back us, and if we call it out the
managers are simply crushed."

And so, delighted, Elmendorf whisked away on this new mission.

Mr. Allison was not at home, such was the answer by telephone, in the
silvery tones he knew so well.

"Then may I ask you to await my coming, Miss Allison?" said he. "I am
charged with matters of the utmost consequence to him and to his. I will
be there just as fast as a cab can carry me."

The reply was not assuring, but he went, and she waited. Indeed, the
girl was waiting anxiously for her father's return. Squads of
workingmen, passing the house, had shaken their fists at it and cursed
its occupants. The morning wind, sweeping eastward from the lumber-yards
along the North Branch, bore ominous sounds of tumult and uproar even so
far from the great railway properties. Elmendorf bade his cabman wait,
and rang at the bell. The tutor could let himself in with his latch-key:
the envoy of five-hundred thousand embattled freemen very properly sent
his card to the magnate's daughter, and presently she appeared.
Sleepless nights and sorrowing days had begun to play havoc with that
fair complexion, and Florence Allison's feminine friends could not have
failed to remark upon it.

But in the shrouded light of the south parlor these defects were but
faintly visible. Elmendorf was pacing nervously up and down, as was his
wont when deeply moved, and Miss Allison entered so quietly that he did
not hear her, and became conscious of her presence on his return trip
from the east window only in time to avert collision. "I beg pardon,"
he stammered; "I was so deep in thought. Miss Allison, permit me." And
he brought forward a chair.

"Thank you, no. It can hardly take that long."

"As you will," he replied, with shrugging shoulders. "Yet I protest I
deserve less arrogance of manner. Listen to me," he continued, coming
impetuously towards her, whereon she coldly recoiled a pace or two.
"From the heat and fury of the battle I have come here once more to
attest my devotion, my loyalty, to the interests of those under whose
roof I have at least found temporary shelter, if not a home and friends.
I come to you clothed with power to speak and to act, turning from
public duties, abandoning against their protest the control of