thing happens to them
much worse than I ever dreamed of. You'll be revenged on the Robbies
some day."

"I don't want any revenge," Montague answered. "I've no quarrel with
them--I simply wish I hadn't accepted their hospitality. I didn't know
they were such little people. It seems hard to believe it."

Mrs. Billy laughed cynically. "What could you expect?" she said. "They
know there's nothing to them but their money. When that's gone, they're
gone--they could never make any more."

The lady gave a chuckle, and added: "Those words make me think of
Davy's experience when he wanted to go to Congress! Tell him about it,
Davy."

But Mr. Alden did not warm to the subject; he left the tale to his
sister.

"He was a Democrat, you know," said she, "and he went to the boss and
told him he'd like to go to Congress. The answer was that it would cost
him forty thousand dollars, and he kicked at the price. Others didn't
have to put up such sums, he said--why should he? And the old man
growled at him, 'The rest have other things to give. One can deliver
the letter-carriers, another is paid for by a corporation. But what can
you do? What is there to you but your money?'--So Davy paid the
money--didn't you, Davy?" And Davy grinned sheepishly.

"Even so," she went on, "he came off better than poor Devon. They got
fifty thousand out of him, and sold him out, and he never got to
Congress after all! That was just before he concluded that America
wasn't a fit place for a gentleman to live in."

And so Mrs. Billy got started on the Devons! And after that came the
Havens and the Wymans and the Todds--it was midnight before she got
through with them all.

CHAPTER XVIII

The newspapers said nothing more about the Hasbrook suit; but in
financial circles Montague had attained considerable notoriety because
of it. And this was the means of bringing him a number of new cases.

But alas, there were no more fifty-thousand-dollar clients! The first
caller was a destitute widow with a deed which would have entitled her
to the greater part of a large city in Pennsylvania--only unfortunately
the deed was about eighty years old. And then there was a poor old man
who had been hurt in a street-car accident and had been tricked into
signing away his rights; and an indignant citizen who proposed to bring
a hundred suits against the traction trust for transfers refused. All
were contingency cases, with the chances of success exceedingly rem