uld fail, to cause Elden to distrust
Irene. No, no," he said, raising his hand toward Mrs. Hardy, who had
started from her seat,--"there must be no vestige of reason, except
that the end justifies the means. It is a case of saving Irene, even
if we must pain her--and you--in the saving."

"It's very dreadful," Mrs. Hardy repeated. "But you are very thorough;
you leave nothing to chance. I suppose that is the way with all big
business men."

"You can trust me," Conward assured her. "There is no time to be lost,
and I must plan my campaigns at once."

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Conward paused to speak to Irene before leaving the house.

"I owe you my good wishes," he said. "And I give them most frankly,
although, perhaps, with more difficulty than you suppose."

"You are very good, Mr. Conward," she acknowledged.

"I could not wish you anything but happiness," he returned. "And had I
been so fortunate as Elden, in making your acquaintance first, I might
have hoped to contribute to your happiness more directly than I can
under the present circumstances." He was speaking in his low, sedulous
notes, and his words sent the girl's blood rushing in a strange mixture
of gratification and anger. The tribute he implied--that he himself
would have been glad to have been her suitor--was skilfully planned to
appeal to her vanity, and her anger was due to its success. She told
herself she should not listen to such words; she should hate to hear
such words. And yet she listened to them, and was not sure that she
hated them. She could only say, "You are very good, Mr. Conward."

He pressed her hand at the door, and again that strange mixture of
emotions surged through her.

Conward proceeded to the business section of the town, well pleased
with the evening's events. He found his way impeded by crowds in front
of the newspaper offices. He had paid little attention to the progress
of the war scare, attributing it to the skilful publicity of interests
connected with the manufacture of armaments. To the last he had not
believed that war was possible. "Nobody wants to fight," he had
assured his business acquaintances. "Even the armament people don't
want to fight. All they want is to frighten more money out of the
taxpayers of Europe." To Conward this explanation seemed very
complete. It covered the whole ground and left nothing to be said.

But to-night he was aware of a keener tension in the crowd atmosphere.