, eh? There's only one way I can
play my game--the thorough way. If it came to a real engagement I should
have to say things, Lambert--things I'd hate myself for; things that
would hurt me, perhaps, more than any one else. If necessary I shall say
them. Will you tell me, if--if----"

Lambert smiled uneasily.

"You're shying at phantoms, but you've always played every game to that
point, and perhaps you're justified. I'll come to you if circumstances
ever promise to prove you right."

"Thanks," George said, infinitely relieved; yet he had an unpleasant
feeling that Lambert had held his temper and had agreed because he was
aware of the existence of a great debt, one that he could never quite
pay.

XV

This creation of a check on Dalrymple and the assurance that Lambert
would warn him of danger came at a useful time for George, since the
market-place more and more demanded an undisturbed mind. He conceded
that Blodgett's earlier pessimism bade fair to be justified. He watched
a succession of industrial upheavals, seeking a safe course among
innumerable and perilous shoals that seemed to defy charting; conquering
whatever instinct he might have had to sympathize with the men, since he
judged their methods as hysterical, grabbing, and wasteful.

"But I don't believe," he told Blodgett, "these strikes have been
ordered from the Kremlin; still, other colours may quite easily combine
to form red."

"God help the employers. God help the employees," Blodgett grumbled.

"And most of all, may God help the great public," George suggested.

But Blodgett was preoccupied these days with an Oakmont stripped of
passion. George knew that Old Planter had sent for him, and he found
something quite pitiful in that final surrender of the great man who was
now worse off than the youngest, grimiest groveller in the furnaces; so
he was not surprised when it was announced that Blodgett would shortly
move over to the marble temple, a partner at last with individuality and
initiative, one, in fact, who would control everything for Old Planter
and his heirs until Lambert should be older. Lambert was sufficiently
unhappy over the change, because it painted so clearly the inevitable
end. The Fifth Avenue house was opened early that fall as if the old
man desired to get as close as possible to the centre of turbulent
events, hoping that so his waning sight might serve.

Consequently George had more opportunities of meeting Sylvia; did mee