he
same time put himself on record without risk of being called disloyal,
while advising him for his own best good. The others were working hard,
and Covington could have posted his chief upon many interesting points
had he chosen to do so. Instead, he preferred to bring added pressure
upon Alice to name an early date for their wedding. He seemed to have
overlooked the fact that as yet she had not given him her formal
consent, but as the event was apparently accepted by her father and
Eleanor and Covington himself as a foregone conclusion, the girl took no
definite exceptions to his attitude. He was, of course, aware of the
family complications, and, in expressing his sympathy, explained that he
could be of much greater assistance in helping to straighten matters out
if he were actually included in the family circle.

But Covington, with all his astuteness, was frankly surprised by a piece
of information which one of the committee confided to him; and this was
nothing less than that unquestionable evidence had been secured that
Gorham himself had, at least in one instance, taken advantage of his
position for personal gain. What this instance was his informant could
not at that moment say--the facts were being carefully compiled, but the
evidence was beyond dispute. This autocrat, who talked of principle and
honor, had been caught red-handed in the very act against which he
pretended to stand; and, of course, this instance was but one of many.
Doctor Jekyll could take it upon himself to deliver platitudes upon
moral rectitude, while Mr. Hyde gathered in the shekels on the side!

The members of the Executive Committee were hugely pleased, and
Covington no less so. All was playing into his hands with surprising
directness, and he even began to feel that his approaching marriage into
Mr. Gorham's family was an act of supreme sacrifice on his part. Still,
it were better to safeguard both exits to the house, and Alice was an
amusing little minx, after all.

XXIV

The elder Riley felt the tenseness in the atmosphere of the Gorham
family, and his inability to discover the occasion for it proved trying
to his soul. The mysterious visits of his son James, and the apparent
confidences between him and his employer, made the old man feel strongly
that, if James were not a part of the new condition, at least he was
acquainted with the cause. Patience with Riley had ceased to be a
virtue, and he so contrived it that he pas