him on women. His caution, born of self-consideration, is the
caution of a beast. Such men as he believe they live in the focus of a
million eyes. Part of his vanity is to deceive those eyes and be what he
is under the mask he wears; and to do that one must be the very master
of caution. That is Quarrier's vanity. To conceal, is his monomania."

"I cannot see how you draw that conclusion."

"Siward, he is a bad man, and crafty--every inch of him."

"Oh, come, now! Only characters in fiction have no saving qualities. You
never heard of anybody in real life being entirely bad."

"No, I didn't; and Quarrier isn't. For example, he is kind to valuable
animals--I mean, his own."

"Good to animals! The bad man's invariable characteristic!" laughed
Siward. "I'm kind to 'em, too. What else is he good to?"

"Everybody knows that he hasn't a poor relation left; not one. He is
loyal to them in a rare way; he filled one subsidiary company full of
them. It is known down town as the 'Home for Destitute Nephews.'"

"Seriously, Plank, the man must have something good in him."

"Because of your theory?"

"Yes. I believe that nobody is entirely bad. So do the great masters of
fiction."

Plank said gravely: "He is a good son to his father. That is perfectly
true--kind, considerate, dutiful, loyal. The financial world is
perfectly aware that Stanley Quarrier is to-day the most unscrupulous
old scoundrel who ever crushed a refinery or debauched a railroad! and
his son no more believes it than he credits the scandalous history of
the Red Woman of Wall Street. Why, when I was making arrangements
for that chapel Quarrier came to me, very much perturbed, because he
understood that all the memorial chapels for the cathedral had been
arranged for, and he had desired to build one to the memory of his
father! His father! Isn't it awful to think of!--a chapel to the memory
of the briber of judges and of legislatures, the cynical defier of
law!--this hoary old thief, who beggared the widow and stripped the
orphan, and whose only match, as a great unpunished criminal, was that
sinister little predecessor of his, who dreamed even of debauching the
executive of these United States!"

Siward had never before seen Plank aroused, and he said so, smiling.

"That is true," said Plank earnestly; "I waste little temper over my
likes and dislikes. But what I know, and what I legitimately infer
concerning the younger Quarrier is enough to rouse any m