So rapid was the march of Senator Garston’s executive energy that a week later, under the caption of “Prospective Wedding in High Life,” Vreeland read the prophetic intimation of his own union with “the brilliant Western heiress, Miss Katharine VanDyke Norreys.” “It is too late to recoil now,” he mused, “for this engagement will be telegraphed by Conyers over to my ‘financial backer.’” The barriers were down, and nightly, under the guise of the usual preparations, Vreeland and Garston conspired against the woman whose heart was burning with all a mother’s still unsatisfied love. The Senator-elect was using all the mighty resources of his wit, fortune and hardihood to trap the travelers and to circumvent the wife who had defied him. And he wrought in a stern silence. There was a little scene with Justine Duprez which was not down on the bills. And of that scene, roundsman Daly was at once made aware by the reports of his woman spy, now the intimate friend of Justine’s old _garde-chambre_. A common curiosity and the confidences engendered over the absinthe glass caused the two women to mark the comings and goings of the handsome young broker and the lissome French lady’s maid who had prospered so wonderfully. For Justine’s hand was an open and a liberal one. Justine had, after a storm of tears, gone away contented. In her heart she proposed in the future to secretly reign over the new _ménage_ of her young tyrant and dupe. When Vreeland had at last quieted his rebellious dupe, he explained to her at once that in the new household there would always be a commanding position for herself, should Mrs. Willoughby cast her out on her return. “So you see, Justine, I can always protect you, and then, when you wish to go over and settle in Paris, you will always have me near you as a protector.” Harold Vreeland was now perfectly happy, and a little more than usually self-assertive. For, on Wall Street all men now envied the man who was cementing a union which would practically control the profitable business resulting from Senator Garston’s vast operations in stocks and mines. Garston was a financial battleship, and a man of mark, even on Manhattan’s shores. “Our policy, Harold,” genially remarked Senator Garston, “is to work right into the enemy’s camp, and to take no notice of Mrs. Willoughby’s little maneuvers. I shall open a large active account with your firm. That gives us the right to be seen together at all places and times. It will blind them all. And while I watch Alynton, you can always keep an eye for me on that crafty young Wyman. Of course, as soon as you are married, Katharine can note every move of the woman we fear. Let them lull themselves to sleep. We will make a strong team, us three! Katharine shall worm into Mrs. Willoughby’s intimacy.”