"No, too deliberate and coldly mistress of yourself. I wish you loved me a little more tumultuously, as I do you." "Well, let me whisper then that your return to-night has made a perfect ending to a perfect day. Oh, Jim, I've been so happy to-night! Seated in that big stage box, I felt that I was somebody. This is the first really decent dress I've ever had in my life." "You were just as beautiful in that blue cotton one, the day I first kissed you, Nan." "I know you thought so, Jim. But the world wouldn't have said it----" "And to-night?" "They agreed with you. I could see it in the craning necks, the glances, the whispered comments, and the stare of mannerless men." "And you were proud and happy!" "Proud for your sake, Jim,--yes--and happy in your love." Stuart's face clouded and he turned away, startled for the first time by a strange similarity in the tone of Nan's voice to her mother's. The painful impression was suddenly broken by a quick touch of Nan's hand on his arm. "Oh, Jim, I'm glad you came a day earlier. I've something to tell you, something wonderful--something that will bring our happiness near----" Her voice sank to the tenderest accents. "What on earth----" "You know Mr. Bivens--John C. Calhoun Bivens?" "Yes," Stuart answered evenly, controlling himself with an effort. "Well, he has taken our second floor, I had a long talk with him last week." "Indeed!" "But of course, goosie, it was business--all business. By the merest accident I learned that his big Trust, the American Chemical Company, needs another lawyer. They pay an enormous salary with all sorts of chances to get rich. They are making millions on millions. I told him that you were the very man for the place and that you were going to be the greatest lawyer in New York. Imagine my joy--when he not only agreed with me, but said he would double the salary if you would accept it. He thought you wouldn't, merely because you lived in the house of old Woodman with whom the Company may have a fight. I told him it was nonsense--that I knew you would accept. Of course, Jim, dear, I couldn't tell him why--I couldn't tell him what it meant to me, though I felt like screaming it in his face. You'll accept, of course?" "Emphatically no!" "You can't be so absurd!" "Yes I can." "Why?" Stuart looked away in moody silence. "Have you been receiving the attentions of this distinguished young millionaire, Nan?" "I've been cultivating him." "Cultivating?" "Yes, for your sake only--you big, handsome, foolish, jealous boy! You can't be in earnest when you say that you will refuse such an offer?" "I am in earnest," was the grim reply. "But why, why--why?" "First, because I will not become the hireling of a corporation, to say nothing of this particular one headed by Mr. Bivens." "Nonsense, Jim. You wouldn't be a hireling. You would lay the law down for them to follow."