id, through clinched teeth: "To think that there should
have been such a fool bearing the name of Muir! He's been gushing to
Madge about that speculator, and we shall yet have to take her as we
would an infection."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE FILIAL MARTYR

Miss Wildmere appeared in one of her most brilliant moods that
evening. There was a dash of excitement, almost recklessness, in her
gray eyes. She and Mr. Arnault had been deputed to lead the German,
but she took Graydon out so often as to produce in Mr. Arnault's eyes
an expression which the observant Mr. Wildmere did not like at all. He
had just returned from dreary, half-deserted Wall Street, which was
as dead and hopeless as only that region of galvanic life can be at
times. He had neither sold nor bought stock, but had moused around,
with the skill of an old _habitue_, for information concerning the
eligibility of the two men who were seeking his daughter's hand. In
the midsummer dullness and holiday stagnation the impending operation
in the Catskills was the only one that promised anything whatever. He
became more fully satisfied that Arnault's firm was prospering. They
had been persistent "bears" on a market that had long been declining,
and had reaped a golden harvest from the miseries of others. On the
other hand, he learned that Henry Muir was barely holding his own, and
that he had strained his credit dangerously to do this. He knew about
the enterprise which had absorbed the banker's capital, and while
he believed it would respond promptly to the returning flow of the
financial tide, it now seemed stranded among more hopeless ventures.
There was no escaping the conviction that Muir was in a perilous
position, and that a little thing might push him over the brink.
Therefore, he had returned fully beat upon using all his influence in
behalf of Arnault, and was spurred to this effort by the fact that his
finances, but not his expenses, were running low. His wife could give
but a dubious account of Stella's conduct.

"In short," said Mr. Wildmere, irritably, "she is dallying with both,
and may lose both by her hesitating folly."

His daughter's greeting was brief and formal. A sort of
matter-of-course kiss had been given, and then he had been left to eat
his supper alone, since his wife could not just then be absent from
her child. At last he lounged out on the piazza, sat down before one
of the parlor windows, glanced at the gay scene within, and smoke