s the
soul of vainglory himself, and he wanted no other gods in the place
beside himself. White, on the contrary, was constantly subservient and
advisory in his manner. It made a great difference.

By degrees, through one process and another, Eugene had lost ground, but
it was only in a nebulous way as yet, and not in anything tangible. If
he had never turned his attention to anything else, had never wearied of
any detail, and kept close to Colfax and to his own staff, he would have
been safe. As it was, he began now to neglect them more than ever, and
this could not fail to tell rather disastrously in the long run.

In the first place the prospects in connection with the Sea Island
Construction Company were apparently growing brighter and brighter. It
was one of those schemes which would take years and years to develop,
but it did not look that way at first. Rather it seemed to be showing
tangible evidences of accomplishment. The first year, after a good deal
of money had been invested, considerable dredging operations were
carried out, and dry land appeared in many places--a long stretch of
good earth to the rear of the main beach whereon hotels and resorts of
all sorts could be constructed. The boardwalk was started after a model
prepared by Eugene, and approved--after modification--by the architect
engaged, and a portion of the future great dining and dancing casinos
was begun and completed, a beautiful building modeled on a combination
of the Moorish, Spanish and Old Mission styles. A notable improvement in
design had been effected in this scheme, for the color of Blue Sea,
according to Eugene's theory, was to be red, white, yellow, blue, and
green, done in spirited yet simple outlines. The walls of all buildings
were to be white and yellow, latticed with green. The roofs, porticos,
lintels, piers, and steps were to be red, yellow, green, and blue. There
were to be round, shallow Italian pools of concrete in many of the
courts and interiors of the houses. The hotels were to be western
modifications of the Giralda in Spain, each one a size smaller, or
larger, than the other. Green spear pines and tall cone-shaped poplars
were to be the prevailing tree decorations. The railroad, as
Mr. Winfield promised, had already completed its spur and Spanish depot,
which was beautiful. It looked truly as though Blue Sea would become
what Winfield said it would become; the seaside resort of America.

The actuality of this progr