ANEOUSLY SHE HEARD A STEALTHY MOVEMENT OUTSIDE

THEN HE CAME SLOWLY BACK, AND PUTTING HIS ARM AROUND VIRGINIA'S WAIST,
KISSED HER

SHE THOUGHT NOTHING OF THE MOTIVE OF HER COMING, ONLY TO PLACE THE DOOR
BETWEEN HER AND THIS!

HE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY OF WATCHING A SEARCH CONDUCTED UPON SCIENTIFIC
PRINCIPLES

THEN IN THE MIDST OF HER WONDERING CAME THE ELUCIDATION OF THESE THINGS

HE WAS ONLY JUST IN TIME TO SAVE HER FROM FALLING

THE GOVERNORS

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

MR. PHINEAS DUGE

Virginia, when she had torn herself away from the bosom of her sorrowing
but excited family, and boarded the car which passed only once a day
through the tiny village in Massachusetts, where all her life had been
spent, had felt herself, notwithstanding her nineteen years, a person of
consequence and dignity. Virginia, when four hours later she followed a
tall footman in wonderful livery through a stately suite of reception
rooms in one of the finest of Fifth Avenue mansions, felt herself
suddenly a very insignificant person. The roar and bustle of New York
were still in her ears. Bewildered as she had been by this first contact
with all the distracting influences of a great city, she was even more
distraught by the wonder and magnificence of these, her more immediate
surroundings. She, who had lived all her life in a simple farmhouse,
where every one worked, and a single servant was regarded as a luxury,
found herself suddenly in the palace of a millionaire, a palace made
perfect by the despoilment of more than one of the most ancient homes
in Europe.

Very timidly, and with awed glances, she looked around her as she was
conducted in leisurely manner to the sanctum of the great man at whose
bidding she had come. The pictures on the walls, magnificent and
impressive even to her ignorant eyes; the hardwood floors, the wonderful
furniture, the statuary and flowers, the smooth-tongued servants--all
these things were an absolute revelation to her. She had read of such
things, even perhaps dreamed of them, but she had never imagined it
possible that she herself might be brought into actual contact
with them.

At every step she took she felt her self-confidence decreasing; her
clothes, made by the village dressmaker from an undoubted French model,
with which she had been more than satisfied only a few hours ago, seemed
suddenly dowdy and ill-fashioned. She was even doubtful about her
looks, although quite half a dozen