colonists who are
tee-totallers and members of some church. The stock is owned largely by the
same class."

"Oh, almost altogether!" cried the little man enthusiastically. "Mr. Van
Ness's name, as you will understand, gives it authority among all religious
people. We distribute prospectuses at camp-meetings and at all sectarian
seaside resorts. Shares go off this summer like hot cakes. There's nothing
like religion, sir, to back up business enterprise. There's Stokes, for
instance. His shoes are sold from New Jersey to Oregon on the strength of
the hymns he has written."

"Yes," said the judge solemnly. "We used to keep religion too much in the
chimney-corner--spoke of it with bated breath. But it's in trade now, sir.
We hear every day of our Christian shoe-makers and railway kings and
statesmen. The world moves!"

"Moves? Oh there's no lever like religion!" gasped the little man. "No
advertisement to equal it. And a good man ought to succeed! Are the
swindlers to take all the fat of the land? Does not the good Book say, 'To
the laborers belong the spoils'?"

"But this is so charming to me!" cried the princess. "We foreigners have so
few opportunities of looking into the workings of your politics and trade!"

Van Ness bowed respectfully.

"And the State Home for destitute children?" asked a raw-boned
Scotch-Irishman. "We're interested in that here in New York. We've
subscribed largely, as you're aware, Mr. Van Ness. May I ask when you wull
begin the buildin'?"

"In the spring, I trust. If enough funds are collected."

"And hoo air the funds invested in the mean while?"

"Oh, in corner-lots in Temperance City."

The committee-men had hurried away to catch the next train: lunch was over,
and Mr. Van Ness stood apart on the lawn under the drooping branches of a
willow, when the princess tripped lightly out to him.

"You have an object in coming here? You had an object in bringing those men
to-day and opening out your affairs. What is it?"

He regarded her composedly for a moment without answering: "You always
erred, Charlotte, in ascribing your own skill in intrigue to me. It was a
flattering mistake. What I am to others I am to myself."

She laughed, a merry, hearty laugh: "Yes, Pliny, because you are not
satisfied with cheating the world and the God that made you into the belief
that you are a Christian, but you parade in your godliness before yourself.
There is not a spot within you sound enough for your