the Governor's lady feeling that her talents and eagerness to do good
had finally prevailed and that true happiness at last was in store for
her. She was satisfied with her husband and recognized his righteous
purpose and capacity as a statesman, but she believed secretly that his
rapid success was due in a large measure to her genius. Her prompting
had inspired him to make a notable speech in his first Congress. Her
charms and clever conversation had magnetized Mr. Elton so that he had
seen fit to nominate him for Governor. A fresh impulse to her
self-congratulation that virtue and ability were reaping their reward
was given a few weeks later by the announcement which Lyons read from
the morning newspaper that the firm of Williams & Van Horne had failed
disastrously. The circumstances attending their down-fall were
sensational. It appeared that Van Horne, the office partner, who managed
the finances, had shot himself as the culmination of a series of
fraudulent hypothecations of securities and misrepresentations to which
it was claimed that Williams was not a party. The firm had been
hopelessly insolvent for months, and had been forced to the wall at last
by a futile effort on the part of Van Horne to redeem the situation by a
final speculation on a large scale. It had failed owing to the
continuation of the state of dry rot in the stock market, and utter ruin
followed.

The regret which Lyons entertained as he read aloud the tragic story was
overshadowed in his mind by his own thankfulness that he had redeemed
the bonds and settled his account with them before the crash came. He
was so absorbed by his own emotions that he failed to note the
triumphant tone of his wife's ejaculation of amazement. "Failed!
Williams & Van Horne failed! Oh, how did it happen? I always felt sure
that they would fail sooner or later."

Selma sat with tightly folded hands listening to the exciting narrative,
which Lyons read for her edification with the urbanely mournful emphasis
of one who has had a narrow escape. He stopped in the course of it to
relieve any solicitude which she might be feeling in regard to his
dealings with the firm, by the assertion that he had only two months
previous closed out his account owing to the conviction that prudent
investors were getting under cover. This assurance gave the episode a
still more providential aspect in Selma's eyes. In the first flush of
her gratitude that Flossy had been superbly rebuked