'Very well, then, the question of duty hardly enters into such a compact. They have sent you on what would be to most people a very difficult mission. You have succeeded. You have, therefore, in your possession something to sell. The New York paper will pay you a certain sum in cash for it. I offer you, for the same article, double the price the _New York Argus_ will pay you. Is not that a fair offer?' Jennie Brewster had arisen. She clasped and unclasped her hands nervously. For a small space of time nothing was said, and Edith Longworth imagined she had gained her point. The woman standing looked down at the woman sitting. 'Do you know all the particulars about the attempt to get this information?' asked Miss Brewster. 'I know some of them. What particulars do you mean?' 'Do you know that a man from the _Argus_ tried to get this information from Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Wentworth in Canada?' 'Yes; I know about that.' 'Do you know that he stole the reports, and that they were taken from him before he could use them?' 'Yes.' 'Do you know he offered Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Wentworth double the price the London Syndicate would have paid them, on condition they gave him a synopsis of the reports?' 'Yes, I know that also.' 'Do you know that, in doing what he asked, they would not have been keeping back for a single day the real report from the people who engaged them? You know all that, do you?' 'Yes; I know all that.' 'Very well, then. Now you ask me to do very much more than Rivers asked them, because you ask me to keep my paper completely in the dark about the information I have got. Isn't that so?' 'Yes, you can keep them in the dark until after the report has been given to the directors; then, of course, you can do what you please with the information.' 'Ah, but by that time it will be of no value. By that time it will have been published in the London financial papers. At that time anybody can get it. Isn't that the case?' 'I suppose so.' 'Now, I want to ask you one other question, Miss--Miss--I don't think you told me your name.' 'My name is Edith Longworth.' 'Very well, Miss Longworth. I want to ask you one more question. What do you think of the conduct of Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Wentworth in refusing to take double what they had been promised for making the report?' 'What do I think of them?' repeated the girl. 'Yes; what do you think of them? You hesitate. You realize that you are in a corner. You think Mr. Wentworth and Mr. Kenyon did very nobly in refusing Rivers' offer?' 'Of course I do.'