t's handwriting, and he remembered the man as
his partner's former secretary. Feist might have written the letter
to Logotheti and the first article, but Van Torp did not believe
him capable of raising a general hue and cry on both sides of the
Atlantic. It undoubtedly happened sometimes that when a fire had been
smouldering long unseen a single spark sufficed to start the blaze,
but Mr. Van Torp was too well informed as to public opinion about him
to have been in ignorance of any general feeling against him, if it
had existed; and the present attack was of too personal a nature to
have been devised by financial rivals. Besides, the Nickel Trust had
recently absorbed all its competitors to such an extent that it had no
rivals at all, and the dangers that threatened it lay on the one hand
in the growing strength of the Labour Party in its great movement
against capital, and on the other in its position with regard to
recent American legislation about Trusts. From the beginning Mr. Van
Torp had been certain that the campaign of defamation had not been
begun by the Unions, and by its nature it could have no connection
with the legal aspect of his position. It was therefore clear that
war had been declared upon him by one or more individuals on purely
personal grounds, and that Mr. Feist was but the chief instrument in
the hands of an unknown enemy.

But at first sight it did not look as if his assailant were Isidore
Bamberger. The violent attack on him might not affect the credit of
the Nickel Trust, but it was certainly not likely to improve it and
Mr. Van Torp believed that if his partner had a grudge against him,
any attempt at revenge would be made in a shape that would not affect
the Trust's finances. Bamberger was a resentful sort of man, but on
the other hand he was a man of business, and his fortune depended on
that of his great partner.

Mr. Van Torp walked every morning in the park, thinking over these
things, and little Ida tripped along beside him watching the squirrels
and the birds, and not saying much; but now and then, when she felt
the gentle pressure of his hand on hers, which usually meant that he
was going to speak to her, she looked up to watch his lips, and they
did not move; only his eyes met hers, and the faint smile that came
into his face then was not at all like the one which most people saw
there. So she smiled back, happily, and looked at the squirrels again,
sure that a rabbit would soon mak