anything she
suggested.

"My husband? Why, what can he do for you?"

Moffatt explained at once, in the fewest words, as his way was when it
came to business. He was interested in a big "deal" which involved the
purchase of a piece of real estate held by a number of wrangling
heirs. The real-estate broker with whom Ralph Marvell was associated
represented these heirs, but Moffatt had his reasons for not approaching
him directly. And he didn't want to go to Marvell with a "business
proposition"--it would be better to be thrown with him socially as if by
accident. It was with that object that Moffatt had just appealed to Mr.
Spragg, but Mr. Spragg, as usual, had "turned him down," without even
consenting to look into the case.

"He'd rather have you miss a good thing than have it come to you through
me. I don't know what on earth he thinks it's in my power to do to
you--or ever was, for that matter," he added. "Anyhow," he went on to
explain, "the power's all on your side now; and I'll show you how little
the doing will hurt you as soon as I can have a quiet chat with
your husband." He branched off again into technicalities, nebulous
projections of capital and interest, taxes and rents, from which she
finally extracted, and clung to, the central fact that if the "deal
went through" it would mean a commission of forty thousand dollars to
Marvell's firm, of which something over a fourth would come to Ralph.

"By Jove, that's an amazing fellow!" Ralph Marvell exclaimed, turning
back into the drawing-room, a few evenings later, at the conclusion of
one of their little dinners. Undine looked up from her seat by the fire.
She had had the inspired thought of inviting Moffatt to meet Clare Van
Degen, Mrs. Fairford and Charles Bowen. It had occurred to her that
the simplest way of explaining Moffatt was to tell Ralph that she had
unexpectedly discovered an old Apex acquaintance in the protagonist of
the great Ararat Trust fight. Moffatt's defeat had not wholly divested
him of interest. As a factor in affairs he no longer inspired
apprehension, but as the man who had dared to defy Harmon B. Driscoll he
was a conspicuous and, to some minds, almost an heroic figure.

Undine remembered that Clare and Mrs. Fairford had once expressed a wish
to see this braver of the Olympians, and her suggestion that he should
be asked meet them gave Ralph evident pleasure. It was long since she
had made any conciliatory sign to his family.

Moff