"Perhaps!" admitted the mayor. "I hope so, at any rate. But I don't propose to break my promise." He added in his own mind that he did not intend to allow a certain topic between him and Lana Corson to get cold while he was being bullyragged by two elderly gentlemen in that study. "By the gods! you'll have to talk turkey to me on one point!" asserted Daunt, his veneer of dignity cracking wide and showing the coarser grain of his nature. "I made you a square business proposition and you insulted me--under the roof of a gentleman who had vouched for both of us." "Thank you! Now we are not retracing our steps, as you threatened to do. We go on from where we left off. Therefore, I can give you a few moments, sir. What insult did I offer you?" "You told me that I ought to be ashamed of myself." "That was not an insult, Mr. Daunt. I intended it to be merely a frank expression of opinion. Just a moment, please!" he urged, breaking in on violent language. He brought his thumb and forefinger together to make a circle and poised his hand over his head. "I don't wear one of these. I have no right to wear one. Halo, I mean! I'm no prig or preacher--at least, I don't mean to be. But when I talk business I intend to talk it straight and use few words--and those words may sound rather blunt, sometimes. Just a moment, I say!" He leaned over the table and struck a resounding blow on it with his knuckles. "This is a nutshell proposition and we'll keep it in small compass. You gave me a layout of your proposed stock issue. No matter what has been done by the best of big financiers, no matter what is being done or what is proposed to be done, in this particular case your consolidation means that you've got to mulct the people to pay unreasonably high charges on stock. It isn't a square deal. My property was developed on real money. I know what it pays and ought to pay. I won't put it into a scheme that will oblige every consumer of electricity to help pay dividends on imaginary money. And if you're seriously attempting to put over any consolidation of that sort on our people, Mr. Daunt, I repeat that you ought to be ashamed of yourself." "And now you have heard him with your own ears," clamored the banker. "What do you say to that, Mr. Corson?" "All capitalization entails a fair compromise--values to be considered in the light of new development," said the Senator. "Let's discuss the proposition, Stewart." "Discussion will only snarl us up. I'm stating the principle. You can't compromise principle! I refuse to discuss." "Have you gone crazy over this protection-of-the-people idea?" demanded Corson, with heat.