can remove. You can restore confidence by a dozen strokes of
your pen, and you can save us."

He was Barbara's father. The proud old man was before him as a
suppliant, no longer the cold man of the world. Back to Brewster's mind
came the thought of his quarrel with Barbara and of her heartlessness.
A scratch of the pen, one way or the other, could change the life of
Barbara Drew. The two bankers stood by scarcely breathing. From the
outside came the shuffle of many feet and the muffled roll of voices.
Again the door to the private office opened and a clerk excitedly
motioned for Mr. Moore to hurry to the front of the bank. Moore paused
irresolutely, his eyes on Brewster's face. The young man knew the time
had come when he must help or deny them.

Like a flash the situation was made clear to him and his duty was
plain. He remembered that the Bank of Manhattan Island held every
dollar that Mrs. Gray and Peggy possessed; their meager fortune had
been entrusted to the care of Prentiss Drew and his associates, and it
was in danger.

"I will do all I can, Colonel," said Monty, "but upon one condition."

"That is?"

"Barbara must never know of this." The Colonel's gasp of astonishment
was cut short as Monty continued. "Promise that she shall never know."

"I don't understand, but if it is your wish I promise."

Inside of half an hour's time several hundred thousand came to the
relief of the struggling bank, and the man who had come to watch the
run with curious eyes turned out to be its savior. His money won the
day for the Bank of Manhattan Island. When the happy president and
directors offered to pay him an astonishingly high rate of interest for
the use of the money he proudly declined.

The next day Miss Drew issued invitations for a cotillon. Mr.
Montgomery Brewster was not asked to attend.

CHAPTER XIV

MRS. DE MILLE ENTERTAINS

Miss Drew's cotillon was not graced by the presence of Montgomery
Brewster. It is true he received an eleventh-hour invitation and a very
cold and difficult little note of apology, but he maintained heroically
the air of disdain that had succeeded the first sharp pangs of
disappointment. Colonel Drew, in whose good graces Monty had firmly
established himself, was not quite guiltless of usurping the role of
dictator in the effort to patch up a truce. A few nights before the
cotillon, when Barbara told him that Herbert Ailing was to lead, he
explosively expressed surprise. "W