t goes from friend to
friend. It is whispered through every town along the line. Everybody
gets crazy over it, and everybody quietly sends in an order for stock.
In the meantime the General and his factor, yielding to the
pressure--melted before the public demand--gently and tenderly unload!
The vision still unrolls. Months later I behold the General buying back
the stock at his own price, and with it maintaining his place in the
management. Have you followed me?"

"Yes, General, I've seen it all. I comprehend it, and I shall unload
with all the gentleness and tenderness possible."

Then the whimsical scoundrel and his willing lieutenant laughed a long,
heartless laugh.

"Toll, I feel better, and I believe I'll get up," said the General. "Let
this vision sink deep into your soul. Then give it wings, and speed it
on its mission. Remember that this is a vale of tears, and don't set
your affections on things below. By-by!"

Talbot went down stairs, drawing on his gloves, and laughing. Then he
went out into the warm light, buttoned up his coat instinctively, as if
to hide the plot he carried, jumped into his coupe, and went to his
business.

Mr. Belcher dressed himself with more than his usual care, went to Mrs.
Belcher's room and inquired about his children, then went to his
library, and drew forth from a secret drawer a little book. He looked it
over for a few minutes, then placed it in his packet, and went out. The
allusion that had been made to Mrs. Dillingham, and the assurance that
he was popularly understood to be her lover, and the only man who was
regarded by her with favor, intoxicated him, and his old passion came
back upon him.

It was a strange manifestation of his brutal nature that at this moment
of his trouble, and this epoch of his cruelty and crime, he longed for
the comfort of a woman's sympathy. He was too much absorbed by his
affairs to be moved by that which was basest in his regard for his
beautiful idol. If he could feel her hand upon his forehead; if she
could tell him that she was sorry for him; if he could know that she
loved him; ay, if he could be assured that this woman, whom he had
believed to be capable of guilt, had prayed for him, it would have been
balm to his heart. He was sore with struggle, and guilt, and defeat. He
longed for love and tenderness. As if he were a great bloody dog, just
coming from the fight of an hour, in which he had been worsted, and
seeking for a tender hand