“This is where I live,” was her only response. They had reached the entrance to a smart uptown apartment house, and Jane paused. Her tone was not exactly a dismissal one, and, as she faced him, Ormsby stared at her anxiously. “Is there--can there be any hope for me----” he began. “While there’s life there’s hope, you know,” retorted Jane, frivolously. “But I was just about to suggest that if you’re quite certain you don’t want to go back to Mrs. Hardenburgh’s, I’ll give you a cup of tea.” Her tone was noncommittal, but as she led the way to the elevator, she looked back at him over her shoulder and laughed softly, and a great joy transfigured John Ormsby’s face. [Illustration] TO A ROADSIDE CEDAR ’Tis not for thee in ancient walks to throw Thy pointed shadows o’er the sculptured stone, Where marble fixes some immortal moan Of art; nor, gathering gloom where waters flow Past groves Lethean, crypts of human woe, To lift thy cheering spires. Thy lot is strown In newer, happier climes and lands unknown To classic realms of storied pomps and show. For thou, dear gnomon of the passing hour, Green sentinel of sunny lanes and fields, Whose sturdy watch defies harsh winter’s knell, Art guardian of the humblest homes, where dwell The simple folk, the yeomanry that wields In peopled might all that men crave of power! HARVEY MAITLAND WATTS. _The_ DELUGE A STORY _OF_ MODERN FINANCE _By_ DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS [Illustration] XXIII. Next day Langdon’s stocks wavered, going up a little, going down a little, closing at practically the same figures at which they had opened. Then I sprang my sensation--that Langdon and his particular clique, though they controlled the Textile Trust, did not own so much as one-fiftieth of its voting stock. True “captains of industry” that they were, they made their profits not out of dividends, but out of side schemes which absorbed about two-thirds of the earnings of the Trust, and out of gambling in its bonds and stocks. I said in conclusion: The largest owner of the stock is Walter G. Edmunds, of Chicago--an honest man. Send your voting proxies to him, and he can take the Textile Company away from those now plundering it. As the annual election of the Trust was only six weeks away, Langdon and his clique were in a panic. They rushed into the market and bought frantically, the public bidding against them. Langdon himself went to Chicago to reason with Edmunds--that is, to try to find out at what figure he could be bought. And so on, day after day, I faithfully reporting to the public the main occurrences behind the scenes. The Langdon attempt to regain control by purchases of stock failed. He and his allies made what must have been to them appalling sacrifices. But even at the high prices they offered, comparatively little of the stock appeared.