o there, so I forgive you."

"More truth here? But Quisante's making a speech!"

"Oh, you're very neat," she said with an open impatience. "You can score
off a woman at her tea-table; go and score off the other side, Weston,
and then you may do it as much as you like to me. As if anybody cared
whether Mr. Quisante speaks the truth or not!" He came up to her and held
out his hand, smiling good-naturedly. She gave him hers with a laugh, for
she liked him much and did not like Quisante at all. "It's your own
fault, that's why you're so exasperating," she half-whispered as she bade
him good-bye.

Here was one side; on the other the men of the City came to know Quisante
too, but, as befitted persons engaged in the serious pursuit of dealing
with money, gave more hesitating and guarded opinions; no party spirit
led them astray or fired them to desperate ventures. However there was no
denying that the Alethea Printing Press sounded a very good thing, and
moreover no denying that measures had been skilfully taken to prevent
anybody having a share in that good thing without paying handsomely for
the privilege. The Syndicate, speaking through Mr. Mandeville its
mouthpiece, by no means implored support or canvassed new partners; it
was prepared to admit one or two names of weight in return for
substantial aid. Mandeville did nothing of himself; he referred to the
Board, and the Board's answers came after Alexander Quisante's hansom had
flashed back to Westminster. But a few did gain admittance, and these few
were much struck by the reports on the Alethea, all of which had been
sent back for revision to their respective authors, accompanied by some
new and important facts. These latter did not, as it turned out, alter
the tenor of the reports, but it had been thought as well to afford an
opportunity for reconsideration in the light of them; so Mandeville
explained, seeming always just a little nervous over this matter of the
reports.

"We had hoped," he said to one gentleman who was rather important and
rather hard to satisfy, "to fortify ourselves with Professor Maturin's
opinion. But unfortunately he died before he could complete his
examination, and nothing on the subject was found among his papers."

"That's a pity. Maturin would have carried great weight."

"We were quite alive to that," Mandeville assured him with a somewhat
uneasy smile. His feelings were not unlike those of a quiet steady-going
member of Quisante's pa