He wished he knew some way of making Mills understand that he was in no danger; that any fears of exposure he might entertain were groundless. His pride rose strong in him as he reviewed his hours spent with Mills. He had not acquitted himself badly; he had forced Mills to respect him, and this was a point worth establishing. When finally he fell asleep it was with satisfaction,--a comforting sense of his independence and complete self-mastery. CHAPTER THIRTEEN I Mills, too, though lately mistrustful of his own emotions, was well satisfied with the result of the long evening. He had spoken of Marian Storrs to Marian’s son and the effect had been to strengthen his belief that the young man knew nothing that could in any way prove annoying. He was a little sorry that he had suggested finding a business opening for Storrs; but decided that on the whole he had managed the matter in a manner to conceal his real purpose. Bruce had said that he was not wholly dependent upon his earnings for a livelihood, and this in itself was reassuring and weighed strongly against the possibility of his ever asserting any claim even if he knew or suspected their relationship. In his careful study of Bruce at their various meetings Mills had been impressed increasingly by the young man’s high-mindedness, his self-confidence and fine reticences, the variety and range of his interests. Ah, if only Shepherd were like that! It was a cruel fate that had given him a son he could never own, who had drifted across the smooth-flowing current of his life to suggest a thousand contrasts with Shepherd Mills--Shep with his pathetically small figure, his absurd notions of social equality and his inability to grasp and deal with large affairs! Ugly as the fact was, Bruce Storrs was a Mills; it wasn’t merely in the resemblance to the portrait of Franklin Mills III that this was evident. Young Storrs’s mental processes were much like those of the man who was, to face it frankly, his grandfather. Bruce Storrs, who had no right to the Mills name, was likely to develop those traits that had endeared Franklin Mills III to the community--traits that nature, with strange perversity, had failed utterly to transmit to his lawful son. Mills, in his new security, pondered these things with a degree of awe. The God in whom he had much less faith than in a protective tariff or a sound currency system might really be a more potent agent in mundane affairs than he, Franklin Mills, who believed in nothing very strongly that couldn’t be reduced to figures, had ever thought possible. As winter gripped the town Mills was uneasy in the thought that he wasn’t getting enough out of life. Even with eight million dollars and the tastes of a cultivated gentleman, life was paying inadequate dividends. And there across the hedge lived Millicent. He would marry Millicent; but there were matters to be arranged first....