Branderson had, beneath the good humour of her reception of him, the skill to chat easily, and then to turn her back without excuse. He bit his mustache—the women! She was watching him with a half-smile. "Do you not agree?" "But which men, then?" he inquired. "Have you no influence over a single one?" "There is young Mather," he said thoughtfully. Her manner changed; she drew a little more within herself, and he noted the difference in her tone as she asked: "You have some connection with him?" "None," he said. "But I can help him." "How?" "He is out of work," Ellis explained. "He will be fretting his heart out for something to do. I could offer him some position." "Do!" she said. "He is right here.—George!" she called. [Pg 21] [Pg 21] CHAPTER III Sets the Ball to Rolling Sets the Ball to Rolling No young man can bear to sit down idly under misfortune; but though the chief results of Mather's work were lost to him, and his great plans—his subway—swept away, and though his defeat rankled, he had not suspected personal feeling in Ellis's action. The promoter had merely stretched out his hand and taken, repudiating the pledges of those who spoke in his name. Therefore, in spite of the little shock which Mather felt when he saw Ellis with Judith, he came forward and greeted politely. It was a chance, of course, to "get back"; it would have been easy to express surprise at the promoter's presence, and to ask how he liked the club now that he
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