he could go for backing. There were "hard guys" who
would take a chance. "Wise ones" who would back his judgment. "Fall
guys" who would follow him blindly. For ten percent he would get all the
cash he could place. Then it remained to try out the grays in secret,
and in public let them go through the paces ridden under wraps and
heavily weighted. He described the means of placing the big money before
the great race.

And as he talked his figures mounted from tens to hundreds to thousands,
until he was speaking in millions. In all of this profit she and David
and Connor would share dollar for dollar. At the first corner of the
shore they turned she had arrived at a snug apartment in New York. She
would have a housekeeper-companion. There would be a cosy living room
and a paneled dining room. In the entrance hall of the apartment house,
imitation of encrusted marble, no doubt.

But as they came opposite a little wooded island in the lake she had
added a maid to the housekeeper. Also, there was now a guest room. Some
one from Lukin would be in that room; some one from Lukin would go
through the place with her, marveling at her good fortune.

And clothes! They made all the difference. Dressed as she would be
dressed, when she came into a room that queer, cold gleam of envy would
be in the eyes of the women and the men would sit straighter!

Yet when they reached the place where the shore line turned north and
west her imagination, spurred by Connor's talk, was stumbling along
dizzy heights. Her apartment occupied a whole floor. Her butler was a
miracle of dignity and her chef a genius in the kitchen. On the great
table the silver and glass were things of frosted light. Her chauffeur
drove a monster automobile with a great purring engine that whipped her
about the city with the color blown into her cheeks. In her box at the
opera she was allowing the deep, soft luxury of the fur collar to slide
down from her throat, while along the boxes, in the galleries, there was
a ripple of light as the thousand glasses turned upon her. Then she
found that Connor was smiling at her. She flushed, but snapped her
fingers.

"This thing is going through," she declared.

"You won't weaken?"

"I'm as cold as steel. Let's go back. He'll probably be in the house by
this time."

Time had slipped past her unnoticed, and the lake was violet and gold
with the sunset as they turned away; under the trees along the terraces
the brilliant wild