"Good-night, people," she said cheerily at the curb, "I hope it ain't good-by to any of you. Doctor, I'd like to be invited to the weddin', however private--that's my tip. When I git settled again, I'll send you my card an' address. Good-night, Mr. Norcross, I'm real pleased to have met you. I had a cousin who was a conductor on one of your roads an' he always spoke nicely of the way he was treated. An', oh, yes! Don't you worry about _me_ givin' any of this away. I'm a medium, all right, but I ain't in that kind of work. I ain't recommendin' myself, of course, Mr. Norcross, but if you git over this--they generally do--an' want some good, straight clairvoyant work done, write Mme. Rosalie Le Grange, care the _Spirit Truth Bulletin_, an' I'll recommend you to them that are strangers to graft. Good-night." After they drove on, Blake, brazenly patting and caressing Annette toward calm and a right mind, furtively noticed Norcross as the bands of city light flashed his figure into view. He was huddled in a corner of the cushioned seat; he looked again the pitiful, broken, disappointed old man. But when he parted from the lovers at the curb of an old house in Lexington Avenue, his voice came out of him with certainty and ring. "If I can do anything more for you in this matter, I am at your service," Blake had said. "I will attend to the rest myself, thank you!" answered Norcross. "It has occurred to me," continued Blake, "that Mrs. Markham will communicate at once with whatever confederates she had in this business. I hope you don't mind my mentioning it." "Probably," responded Norcross, "she's at the telephone now. That's my part of it. Good-night." XIV MAINLY FROM THE PAPERS (From the Wall Street _Sun_, Oct. 21, 190-) Whatever motive impelled Robert H. Norcross to his mysterious operations in L.D. and M. during the past two days, it looks rather like stock manipulation than the larger financing which has hitherto marked his career. When, on Wednesday, the directors of the L.D. and M. adjourned without declaring a dividend, that stock, which had advanced somewhat owing to the speculative trading of the past three weeks, fell from 56 to 50, and closed weak at 49-1/4. Directly after the close of the exchange, Norcross, as though by program, reconvened the directors, who declared a dividend of one and one-half per cent. The news was about by the time the market opened yesterday, and L.D. and M. made the record jump of the year, going to 76 and closing strong at 75-1/2. It scarcely went below that point to-day, and at two o'clock touched its highest notch--76-3/4. Considerable criticism of Norcross was heard on the street to-day. (From the Wall Street _Sun_, Oct. 24, 190-) BROKERAGE FIRM ASSIGNS