The Root of Evil

Nan was again out. He received the announcement from

m never to be able t

en any engagement to see you, had she known you were goi

will she

il f

s at a dre

going to the h

d t

a. I don't expect her home un

with a light laugh, "I should have told her-but I di

asked, with carefully modulated sympathy whi

that I'll call

er purred. "I'll see that she's

te of himself as he

nk y

passionate protest. He must have this thing out with Nan on

blocked the sidewalk. The coal trust was one of the first. The street crossing at Broadway and Twenty-third Street was jammed with a string of delivery waggons from the department stores whose growth had crushed a hundred small trades. The clang of the cars proclaimed the Street Railway Merger and a skyscraper called "The Flatiron" was just raising its giant frame on the little triangle where a half-dozen old-fashioned buildings had stood for generations. Across Madison

Calhoun Bivens toward the woman he loved. That Bivens should fall hopelessly and blindly in love with Nan at first sight was too stupefying to be grasped at once. She couldn't love such a man-and yet his mi

d met Nan with something of his old gaiety, to

hour of twelve noon, to-day? Am I becoming so resistless that work no longer has any charms? You m

ng her hand. "I want a public announcement of

im

ean

ade to my mother's hostility to you, is that our engagement shall

we are re

oke into a rip

e?-I didn'

t of fun and pressing her hand. "I've arranged a little trip to the count

I'm open to

sent to the

-ni

es

first. You've planned th

ise to convince you to-morrow that we are ready. I've an a

Jim," was the

you that I've discovered somethin

ooked at h

know the secret of your call this morning. W

seen Mr.

her face flushed, her vo

're a darling! Why did you tease me s

didn't call on Biven

, Jim, don't tell me

oint you, dear, but

o her seat with a si

led to a most important an

o you mean? He offer

fessed that he did it

e suddenly

hear that my wishes f

he fact that he is hopelessly an

nger mantled

id in quiet cold tones. "Yo

nk I could joke o

ay about the corner

t mean it

st sort of blunt English. And you mean

y Nan crossed her hands over her knees and studied the

derestimate

dent

laughing again

ke, Nan. It's

I fail t

we must at once anno

d with the faintest s

may be a good lawyer, but

with a gestu

nd the stump any longer. You know as well as I do that

g to f

es

ished without bungling the effort? What

heart of hearts yo

icap this big heartless city and successfully smash the giants who oppose

with suppressed fury, "y

e drawled, with l

disgus

er dark eye

u use such a

s true and y

t say it"-she rose delib

n a queer muffled voice. "I didn't mea

was the hard

t," he pleaded. "You must for

r a moment without the quiver of an eyelid, her f

tiring

a joy in her power that was evil-a cruelty that could spring only from the deepest and most merciless self-worship. For the first time he saw a cold-blooded calculation behind her beautiful eyes, caught its accent in the richly modulated voice, and felt it in the smile which showed the white te

inged his face as

fered enough to-day. You're only teasing me. And

an end, Mr. Stuart,"

an

or utter a protest, she opened the do