urface. There is concealed power
within it. You may meet myriads of men well qualified to teach me
courtesy, but when this veneer of social observance is broken, you come
to pretty much the same material underneath. I seldom permit myself the
luxury of an escape from the conventions, but on rare occasions I break
through. For that I ask your pardon. Impressed by your sincerity, I
forgot for the moment everything but your own need in the present
crisis."

"What crisis?" she asked indignantly.

"The financial crisis caused by your spending every available resource
on this so-called conservation policy. To all intents and purposes you
are now a bankrupt. Mrs. Vanderveldt has contributed all she can, and
both you and she are afraid to tell her brother the true state of the
case. You fear you will get little sympathy from him, for he is absorbed
in coal-mines and railways, and both of you have already felt his
annoyance at the law-suit in which you have involved him. Hence your
desperate need of a capitalist. A really polite man would be a more
pleasant companion than I, but he is not worth that, Miss Maturin!"

Stranleigh removed his hand from the lever long enough to snap fingers
and thumb, but he instantly replaced it when he saw her determination to
start the machine.

"The man of the moment, Miss Maturin, is a large and reckless
capitalist. I am that capitalist."

He released his hold of the lever, and sat upright. The sternness of his
face relaxed.

"Now, Miss Maturin, turn on the power; take me where you like; dump me
into any of those lakes you choose; the water is crystal clear, and I'm
a good swimmer," and with this Stranleigh indulged in a hearty laugh,
his own genial self once more.

"You are laughing at me," she said resentfully.

"Indeed I am not. Another contradiction, you see! I am laughing at
myself. There's nothing I loathe so much as strenuousness, and here I
have fallen into the vice. It is the influence of that brawling river
below us, I think. But the river becomes still enough, and useful
enough, when it reaches the great lake at Powerville, which is big
enough to swallow all these little ponds."

The girl made no motion towards the lever, but sat very still, lost in
thought. When she spoke, her voice was exceedingly quiet.

"You complimented Nature a while ago, intending, as I suppose, to
compliment me, but I think after all the greater compliment is your
straight talk, which I admire, al