They had turned a few minutes previously into the wide thoroughfare
crowning the high ground which is covered by the residential quarter of
Hanaford. Here the spacious houses, withdrawn behind shrubberies and
lawns, revealed in their silhouettes every form of architectural
experiment, from the symmetrical pre-Revolutionary structure, with its
classic portico and clipped box-borders, to the latest outbreak in
boulders and Moorish tiles.

Amherst followed his companion's glance with surprise. "We _have_ gone a
block or two out of our way. I always forget where I am when I'm talking
about anything that interests me."

Miss Brent looked at her watch. "My friends don't dine till seven, and I
can get home in time by taking a Grove Street car," she said.

"If you don't mind walking a little farther you can take a Liberty
Street car instead. They run oftener, and you will get home just as
soon."

She made a gesture of assent, and as they walked on he continued: "I
haven't yet explained why I am so anxious to get an unbiassed opinion of
Dillon's case."

She looked at him in surprise. "What you've told me about Dr. Disbrow
and your manager is surely enough."

"Well, hardly, considering that I am Truscomb's subordinate. I shouldn't
have committed a breach of professional etiquette, or asked you to do
so, if I hadn't a hope of bettering things; but I have, and that is why
I've held on at Westmore for the last few months, instead of getting out
of it altogether."

"I'm glad of that," she said quickly.

"The owner of the mills--young Richard Westmore--died last winter," he
went on, "and my hope--it's no more--is that the new broom may sweep a
little cleaner."

"Who is the new broom?"

"Westmore left everything to his widow, and she is coming here to-morrow
to look into the management of the mills."

"Coming? She doesn't live here, then?"

"At Hanaford? Heaven forbid! It's an anomaly nowadays for the employer
to live near the employed. The Westmores have always lived in New
York--and I believe they have a big place on Long Island."

"Well, at any rate she _is_ coming, and that ought to be a good sign.
Did she never show any interest in the mills during her husband's life?"

"Not as far as I know. I've been at Westmore three years, and she's not
been seen there in my time. She is very young, and Westmore himself
didn't care. It was a case of inherited money. He drew the dividends,
and Truscomb did the rest."

Mi