planations _were_ made to a young lady from Boston--and explanations
that took some time, too. I--even I--can bear witness to that."

"My life," Smith rejoined, "has been like that of a candidate for
office, such that he who runs may read--and he need not necessarily be
a ten-second sprinter, either. Only one dark, shameful page is in it,
and that is the record of the day when I talked deaf, dumb, and blind
the helpless stranger within the Guardian's gates."

"Are you really sorry?" Helen asked more seriously.

Smith looked at her.

"It has been more than three months since you left New York," he said.
"I have been glad of it--and sorry for it--every day of that time."

"And which are you now?" inquired the girl, with interest.

"If I should start on that subject, I should probably regret it.
Hadn't we better talk of something else?"

"As you wish," Helen returned lightly. "But you can at least tell me
about the Guardian, and what has been happening since I left. In an
occasional letter which I have received from an insurance friend of
mine in New York, there has never been a word about his company."

"Your correspondent no doubt wanted to be cheerful when he wrote to,
you, and for that reason it has been necessary for him to omit all
reference to the Guardian's affairs."

"But I heard indirectly about them, just the same--from Uncle Silas. I
know of course that he retired from the active management of Silas
Osgood and Company because he was humiliated and chagrined at being
obliged to resign the agency of his old friend Mr. Wintermuth's
company, and I know that, although he would not interfere with Mr. Cole
after Mr. Cole took charge of the business, he disapproved of Mr.
Cole's accepting the agency of the Salamander."

"Well, if you know as much as that, you know that our suspicions of Mr.
O'Connor proved all too true. He not only engineered the scheme to get
us out of the Eastern Conference, but after we got out he has tried to
steal all our best agents and business for his own company, and, thanks
to the lack of any resistance on our part, he has been able in many
cases to succeed."

"But why didn't you resist? I don't quite understand. Couldn't
anybody--couldn't you stop him?"

"I--I didn't have a chance," answered Smith.

"Indeed? And why not?" continued his inquisitor.

"From the series of pointed questions you are putting me, I might
almost imagine I was being interviewed by the represen