" he answered. "Bad for
Boston--bad for us all. I have been through this sort of calamity
before; but that was many years ago. I did not mind it so much when I
was a young man. It is different now."

"But surely the city can survive it, can it not?"

"Yes--the property loss, no doubt; and I am glad to say that very few
lives have been lost. But it is a fearful catastrophe. The city is
crippled--shaken to its very heart! Think of the hundreds of families
driven into the streets, the businesses wrecked, the uncountable number
of men left without employment, even if the fire cease at once!"

A new idea had come to Helen.

"What difference will it make to Silas Osgood and Company?" she asked,
with some hesitation. "It won't injure your firm, will it?"

"Oh, to a certain extent, temporarily, but nothing to be troubled
about. Of course the local agent does not have to pay any part of his
companies' losses. But--" he paused.

"But what?" asked the girl.

"Well, I have been in the business so long, my dear, that I have come
to look at this sort of thing more from the standpoint of my companies
than my own. I am ashamed--yes, sorry and ashamed--to have my city
hurt my companies so sorely."

"But you couldn't have helped it--it isn't your fault," said Mrs.
Maitland, somewhat mystified, but guessing a little of what he felt.

"No," said Mr. Osgood, slowly; "I couldn't have helped it. But if it
had to happen in Boston, I'm sorry it didn't wait until I was through."

"Then I hope it would be never!" Helen said, a little incoherently; but
the point was plain.

"On the business side there is only one feature that cheers me,"
continued Mr. Osgood, "and that is the fact that my old friend James
Wintermuth and his company, the Guardian of New York, are practically
out of it all."

"How do you mean--out of it?" Helen's mother asked.

"You see, the Guardian, when it had to leave my office, lost all its
local business. A good deal of it was naturally in this very part of
the city which is burning. They undoubtedly have some term lines still
in force,--policies written for three or five years,--but not many.
They will escape with a very light loss indeed--whereas two years ago
this conflagration would have involved them for an amount such as not
many companies would care to meet."

"Then there must be other companies now who will lose more in this fire
than they can pay?"

"Without a doubt. There has never b