Horace sat closeted with Tenney for a long time, learning the details of the two plans which had been presented to Mrs. Minster, and which he was expected to support. The sharpest scrutiny could detect nothing dishonest in them. Both involved mere questions of expediency--to loan money in support of one’s stock, and to enter a trust which was to raise the price of one’s wares--and it was not difficult for Horace to argue himself into the belief that both promised to be beneficial to his client. At the close of the interview Horace said plainly to his companion that he saw no reason why he should not advise Mrs. Minster to adopt both of the Judge’s recommendations. “They seem perfectly straightforward,” he added. “Did you expect anything else, knowing me all this while?” asked Tenney, reproachfully. CHAPTER XXI.--REUBEN’S MOMENTOUS FIRST VISIT. SOME ten days later, Reuben Tracy was vastly surprised one afternoon to receive a note from Miss Minster. The office-boy said that the messenger was waiting for an answer, and had been warned to hand the missive to no one except him. The note ran thus: Dear Sir: I hope very much that you can find time to call here at our house during the afternoon. Pray ask for me, and do not mention_ to any one_ that you are coming. _It will not seem to you, I am sure, that I have taken a liberty either in my request or my injunction, after you have heard the explanation. Sincerely yours,_ Kate Minster. Reuben sent back a written line to say that he would come within an hour, and then tried to devote himself to the labor of finishing promptly the task he had in hand. It was a very simple piece of conveyancing--work he generally performed with facility--but to-day he found himself spoiling sheet after sheet of “legal cap,” by stupid omissions and unconscious inversions of the quaint legal phraseology. His thoughts would not be enticed away from the subject of the note--the perfume of which was apparent upon the musty air of the office, even as it lay in its envelope before him. There was nothing remarkable in the fact that Miss Minster wanted to see him--of course, it was with reference to Jessica’s plan for the factory-girls--but the admonition to secrecy puzzled him a good deal. The word “explanation,” too, had a portentous look. What could it mean? ***** Mrs. Minster had been closeted in the library with her lawyer, Mr. Horace Boyce, for fully two hours that forenoon, and afterward, in the hearing of her daughters, had invited him to stay for luncheon. He had pleaded pressure of business as an excuse for not accepting the invitation, and had taken a hurried departure forthwith.