to be
the object of his ruined neighbors' scorn--men have blown their brains
out in his mood, and for less.

What Mudge and the Company regarded as wilful misrepresentations had in
the beginning been due to inexperience and ignorance of an undertaking
which it required scientific knowledge to successfully carry out. When
the truth had been gradually borne in upon him as the work progressed,
he felt that it was too late to explain or retract if he would raise
more money and keep his position. The real cost he believed would
frighten possible investors and with the peculiar sanguineness of the
short-sighted, he thought that it would work out somehow.

And all had gone well until Mudge's unheeded warning had come that some
subtle but formidable influence was at work to their undoing.

The dull red of mortification crept slowly over Symes's face as he
realized that Ogden Van Lennop, before whom he had boasted of his
lineage, and patronized, was a conspicuous member of a family whose name
was all but a household word throughout the land!

But why, Symes asked the question that Mudge had asked, why should Van
Lennop thrust the knife between his short ribs--and turn it? It could
not be because Van Lennop had resented his patronage and his vaporings
to any such extent as this; he was not that kind. No; he had been
touched deeper than his pride or any petty vanity.

Another question like an answer to his first flashed through his mind.
Could it be--was it possible that his attentions to Essie Tisdale, the
biscuit-shooter of the Terriberry House, had been sincere?

Symes rose in sudden excitement and paced the floor.

He believed it was! The belief grew to conviction and he dropped again
into his chair. If this was it he need expect no quarter. As his
thoughts flashed back over the past the fact began to stand out clearly
that nearly every unfriendly act he had shown the girl had been
instigated by Doctor Harpe and accomplished through Augusta.

"That woman!" The veins swelled in his temples. "Always that woman!" and
as though in answer to her name he saw her pass the window and shake the
latched door.

"Let me in!" It was a peremptory demand.

Symes threw the catch back hard.

"Yes, Dr. Harpe, I'll let you in. I've business with you. For the first
time in my life I want to see you." His tone was brutal. "Sit down!" He
laid his huge hand upon her shoulder and thrust her into a chair.

Towering above her in the red-