e was asked, could she have trusted that
young gentleman on this point of Storri. But Mr. Fopling was prone to
bring up the one subject which others were trying to forget; and,
realizing his tenacious aptitude for crime of that character, Bess sent
him home and came alone.

Richard, like Storri before him, only with a better conscience, did not
crowd good fortune to the wall; he left early. As he made ready to go,
Mr. Harley invited him not only to another dinner, but to a multitude of
such refections. Mr. Harley, having been thus hospitable, swept Mrs.
Hanway-Harley with arrogant eye as who should say:

"There lies my glove, madam! We shall see who lifts it!"

Altogether, Richard's coming to the Harley house in the role of suitor
for Dorothy's small hand went off well; and Dorothy was thinking that
life seemed very beautiful and very bright when four hours later she
fell asleep, and rosy dreams relieved her thoughts from further duty
about her pillow for that night.

Senator Hanway and Mr. Harley, being veterans of the tape, were not
ignorant of the hopeless state into which the failure of that "bear"
raid on Northern Consolidated had plunged them. They could not name him
who had worked the "corner" against them and the other members of the
osprey pool, the hand that defeated them had been played from behind a
curtain. Time, however, would develop the identity of their conqueror;
nor was his identity of first importance, since the great thing was that
they were caught. The best they might do was quietly await destruction
in its coming. It would surely come; "corners" were not made in vain,
and a day would dawn when he who held them captive would disclose
himself. That disclosure would mean for them, financially, the beginning
of the end.

Mr. Harley and Senator Hanway might have repudiated the deal, and so
saved their fortunes at the sacrifice of their names. Indeed they
thought of it; and then they shook their heads. Such a step would ruin
Senator Hanway's hopes of a Presidency; those hard years of political
labor would be canceled; his chances, now the fairest, would be swept
away not only for the present but for time. The discovery of Senator
Hanway--he who wrote the report against Northern Consolidated--as a
partner in that "bear" raid, would strike his name forever from the roll
of Presidential possibilities. It might even result in his expulsion
from the Senate, for conspiracy is no good charge to face when