ng
protest. The face of Lady Catharine was averted.

"You did not tell me, Lady Emily," said she, with woman's feigned
indifference, "what was the name of this poor woman of the other
evening."

"Why, so I had forgot--and 'tis said that Mr. Law, after all, comported
himself something of the gentleman. No one knows how far back the affair
runs, nor how serious it was. And indeed I have seen no one who ever
heard of the woman before."

"And the name?"

"'Twas said Mr. Law called her Mary Connynge."

The big fly, deep down in the crystal cage, buzzed on audibly; and to
one who heard it, the drone of the lazy wings seemed like the roars of a
thousand tempests.

CHAPTER X

MASTER AND MAN

John Law, idle, preoccupied, sat gazing out at the busy scenes of the
street before him. The room in which he found himself was one of a suite
in that magnificent Hotel de Soisson, bought but recently of the Prince
de Carignan for the sum of one million four hundred thousand livres,
which had of late been chosen as the temple of Fortuna. The great
gardens of this distinguished site were now filled with hundreds of
tents and kiosks, which offered quarters for the wild mob of speculators
which surged and swirled and fought throughout the narrow avenues,
contending for the privilege of buying the latest issue of the priceless
shares of the Company of the Indies.

The System was at its height. The bubble was blown to its last limit.
The popular delirium had grown to its last possible degree.

From the window these mad mobs of infuriated human beings might have
seemed so many little ants, running about as though their home had been
destroyed above their heads. They hastened as though fleeing from the
breath of some devouring flame. Surely the point of flame was there, at
that focus of Paris, this focus of all Europe; and thrice refined was
the quality of this heat, burning out the hearts of those distracted
ones.

Yet it was a scene not altogether without its fascinations. Hither came
titled beauties of Paris, peers of the realm, statesmen, high officials,
princes of the blood; all these animated but by one purpose--to bid and
outbid for these bits of paper, which for the moment meant wealth,
luxury, ease, every imaginable desire. It seemed indeed that the world
was mad. Tradesmen, artisans, laborers, peasants, jostled the princes
and nobility, nor met reproof. Rank was forgotten. Democracy, for the
first time on earth, h