vil, that's all. You've not proved yourself a real man--not yet. Do
you think it paid your debt to Carnac Grier that you helped get him into
Parliament?"

His face became a little heated. "I'll prove to you and to the world
that I'm not an absolute devil in the Grier interests. I didn't steal
the property. I tried to induce John Grier to leave it to Carnac or his
mother, for if he'd left it to Mrs. Grier it would have come to Carnac.
He did not do it that way, though. He left it to me. Was I to blame for
that?"

"Perhaps not, but you could have taken Carnac in, or given up the
property to him--the rightful owner. You could have done that. But you
were thinking of yourself altogether."

"Not altogether. In the first place, I am bound to keep my word to John
Grier. Besides, if Carnac had inherited, the property would have got
into difficulties--there were things only John Grier and I understood,
and Carnac would have been floored."

"Wouldn't you still have been there?"

"Who knows! Who can tell! Maybe not!"

"Carnac Grier is a very able man."

"But of the ablest. He'll be a success in Parliament. He'll play a big
part; he won't puddle about. I meant there was a risk in letting Carnac
run the business at the moment, and--"

"And there never was with you!"

"None. My mind had grasped all John Grier intended, and I have the
business at my fingers' ends. There was no risk with me. I've proved it.
I've added five per cent to the value of the business since John Grier
died. I can double the value of it in twenty years--and easy at that."

"If you make up your mind to do it, you will," she said with admiration,
for the man was persuasive, and he was playing a game in which he was a
master.

Her remarks were alive with banter, for Tarboe's humour was a happiness
to her.

"How did I buy your approval?" he questioned alertly.

"By ability to put a bad case in a good light. You had your case, and
you have made a real success. If you keep on you may become a Member of
Parliament some day!"

He laughed. "Your gifts have their own way of stinging. I don't believe
I could be elected to Parliament. I haven't the trick of popularity of
that kind."

Many thoughts flashed through Tarboe's mind. If he married her now, and
the truth was told about the wills and the law gave Carnac his rights,
she might hate him for not having told her when he proposed. So it was
that in his desire for her life as his own, he now determine