has been wholly woven from the white.

"My boy," he added, turning to Allen, "for the first time in my life I
ask a man's forgiveness. In the face of the greatest discouragements,
you have shown yourself true, and I congratulate you and your father
upon the future which you have before you. I want you to stay with me
until the Consolidated Companies has been placed in a position of safety
to itself and to its stockholders, then you may choose your own
career."

"No Sanford ever made a failure yet," Stephen proudly repeated.

"But, Mr. Gorham--" Allen began, surprised into confusion by the
unstinted praise; but Alice interrupted him.

"So this is my business creation!" she exclaimed, with satisfaction.
Allen looked first at her and then at Mr. Gorham. Then he smiled
consciously.

"While you are about it, Mr. Gorham," he said, impulsively, "I wish you
would disintegrate Alice and Mr. Covington."

A momentary shadow passed over the faces of all who knew what had
occurred.

"That dissolution took place last night," Mr. Gorham replied, quietly.

Alice's cheeks were flaming, but her smile was irresistible as she
spoke.

"I'll tell you all about it, Allen, if you'll come into the
conservatory."

XXXI

A great event requires retrospective consideration. Unlike the laws of
perspective, distance gives it greater size. So it was with Gorham's
supreme and final demonstration of his strength. To Covington, who, true
to his promise of the night before, was present at this crucial meeting
of the Board of Directors, and marvelled that his chief demanded of him
only a statement regarding the real purchaser of the stock, this
dissolution of the Consolidated Companies appeared as an act of
sacrilege; to his associates, aghast at the knowledge that they were
powerless to prevent him, it seemed the epitome of treachery; to his
family it meant a sublime exhibit of self-sacrifice;--to himself it was
the crowning point of his career, and a justification of his life-work.

"You know what this means?" Litchfield had demanded of him. "You realize
that your action to-morrow will deprive us of millions, and will plunge
the country into a panic which will cost that dear public which you
profess to love, more than we should have kept from them in a decade?"

"Yes," replied Gorham, resolutely; "I realize it all. It is a simple
case of surgery--it may be necessary to sacrifice the limb to save the
life. You, gentlemen, have ha