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Each day he rose with the hope of some sign from Nan, and each day hope died in a more desperate and sullen despair. At last he began to question the wisdom of his course. Should he not fight his battle at closer range? What if he were in reality engaged in a mortal combat with Bivens's millions for Nan's soul and body! The idea was too hideous to be thinkable.
The man who puts on a mask, arms himself with revolver, knife, and dark lantern and enters my house to rob me of my goods will not hesitate to kill if a human life stands in the way of his success." "I should not put it quite so strongly of these men " "I do. And I know I'm right. I saw murder in those black bead eyes of Bivens's to-night.
A hundred years from now and your name will have vanished from human memory. A millionaire dies every day. Nobody knows. Nobody cares. Is such a life at its best worth living? And yours is never at its best. You can't eat much. You don't sleep well and you can't live beyond fifty-five." Bivens's dark face grew suddenly pale and his slender fingers touched one of the piles of gold.
"And you can't conceive of my acting for the country's good?" Bivens's black eyes twinkled. "Not by the wildest leap of my imagination." The twinkle broadened into a smile as the lawyer continued: "Your code is simple, Cal. There's no provision in it for disinterested effort for others.
The possession of these gifts carried a responsibility. He fell this very dimly as yet, but still he felt it. Never before had he been conscious of such an idea. On reaching his club on Gramercy Park he saw that the Primrose house was closed. Nan's mother had gone with the bridal party on Bivens's big yacht for a cruise which would last through the summer.
"Any test!" she broke in quickly. "I warn you," he went on, with increasing seriousness, "the test will be a real one. You and I, Nan, could never be happy with the shadow of Bivens's fortune over us." "But, its shadow can't be over us! It's going to be yours. He has given it to me his death is only a question of a year or two and I'm going to give it all to you."
Woodman in his suit for damages against the Chemical Trust, which had been dragging its course through the courts for years. To his amazement he had just received an offer from Bivens's attorneys to compromise this suit for a hundred thousand dollars. He would of course advise the doctor to accept it immediately. He had never believed he could win a penny.
"I've yet a roof over my head." "But is this battle yours alone, Doctor? You are but one among millions. You are trying to bear the burden of all have you counted the cost? Harriet's course in music will continue two years longer the last year she must spend abroad. Her expenses will be great. This settlement is a generous one, no matter what Bivens's motive."
Through the shadows of the long night he lay with wide staring eyes, gazing at the vision which would not vanish the face of the woman he loved cold, white, pulseless, terrible in its beauty, dead. The longer Stuart wrestled with the problem of Nan's yielding to the lure of Bivens's gold the more hideous and hopeless it became.
Surely some of Bivens's sinister philosophy to which he had listened yesterday had a pretty solid basis in the facts of our everyday life. When the speaking began Stuart pressed his way as close as possible, drawing Nan with him.
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