e first growl of the storm faint as yet, but
to the initiated the forerunner of a deluge. As an item of news it was
not indecently displayed. It was not displayed at all in a sense. The
serious paper, the only one of the great dailies which had always
maintained an attitude of reserve towards the de Barral group of banks,
had its "manner." Yes! a modest item of news! But there was also, on
another page, a special financial article in a hostile tone beginning
with the words "We have always feared" and a guarded, half-column leader,
opening with the phrase: "It is a deplorable sign of the times" what was,
in effect, an austere, general rebuke to the absurd infatuations of the
investing public. She glanced through these articles, a line here and a
line there--no more was necessary to catch beyond doubt the murmur of the
oncoming flood. Several slighting references by name to de Barral
revived her animosity against the man, suddenly, as by the effect of
unforeseen moral support. The miserable wretch! . . . "

* * * * *

"--You understand," Marlow interrupted the current of his narrative,
"that in order to be consecutive in my relation of this affair I am
telling you at once the details which I heard from Mrs. Fyne later in the
day, as well as what little Fyne imparted to me with his usual solemnity
during that morning call. As you may easily guess the Fynes, in their
apartments, had read the news at the same time, and, as a matter of fact,
in the same august and highly moral newspaper, as the governess in the
luxurious mansion a few doors down on the opposite side of the street.
But they read them with different feelings. They were thunderstruck.
Fyne had to explain the full purport of the intelligence to Mrs. Fyne
whose first cry was that of relief. Then that poor child would be safe
from these designing, horrid people. Mrs. Fyne did not know what it
might mean to be suddenly reduced from riches to absolute penury. Fyne
with his masculine imagination was less inclined to rejoice extravagantly
at the girl's escape from the moral dangers which had been menacing her
defenceless existence. It was a confoundedly big price to pay. What an
unfortunate little thing she was! "We might be able to do something to
comfort that poor child at any rate for the time she is here," said Mrs.
Fyne. She felt under a sort of moral obligation not to be indifferent.
But no comfort for anyone could be got by rushing out into the