The Governors | Page 6

all too marvellous," she declared.
Then there came a sudden interruption. She heard the rustle of a gown
close to their table, and looking up found to her amazement that it was
Stella who was standing there.
"So you are my cousin!" Stella said, "little Virginia! I only saw you
once before, but I should have known you anywhere by your eyes. No!
of course you don't remember me! You see I am six years older. I
mustn't stop, because, as I dare say you know, I am not on speaking
terms with my father, but I felt that I must just shake hands with you,
and tell you that I remembered you."
"You are very kind," Virginia faltered.
Her uncle had risen to his feet, and was standing in an attitude of polite
inattention, as though some perfect stranger had addressed the lady who
was under his care. He appeared quite indifferent; in his daughter's
voice there had not been the slightest trace of any sentiment. A careless
word or two passed between him and the man Norris Vine, who was
waiting for Stella. Then they passed out together, and Phineas Duge
calmly resumed his chair. Virginia, who had expected to find him
angry, was herself amazed.
"By the by," Mr. Duge said, as he lit a cigarette, "always remember
what I told you about that man. Be especially on your guard if ever you
are brought into contact with him. I happen to know that he registered a
vow, a year ago, that before five years were past he would ruin me."
"I will remember," Virginia faltered.

CHAPTER III
STORM CLOUDS
Mr. Phineas Duge, since the death of his wife, had closed his doors to
all his friends, and entertained only on rare occasions a few of the men
with whom he was connected in his many business enterprises. On the
arrival of Virginia, however, he lifted his finger, and Society stormed at
his doors. The great reception rooms were thrown open, the servants
were provided with new liveries, an entertainment office was given
carte blanche to engage the usual run of foreign singers and the best
known mountebanks of the moment. Mrs. Trevor Harrison, the woman
whom he had selected as chaperon for Virginia, more than once
displayed some curiosity, when talking to her charge, as to this sudden
change in the habits of a man whose lack of sociability had become
almost proverbial.
"If it were not, my dear," she said one day to Virginia, when they were
having tea together in her own more modest apartment, "that I firmly
believe your uncle incapable of any affection for any one, we should all
have to believe that he had lost his heart to you."
Virginia, who had heard other remarks of the same nature, looked
puzzled.
"I cannot see," she exclaimed, "why every one speaks of my uncle as a
heartless person. I do not think that I ever met any one more kind, and
he looks it, too. I do not think that I ever saw any one with such a
benevolent face."
Mrs. Trevor Harrison laughed softly as she rocked herself in her chair.
"Dear child," she said, "New York has known your uncle for
twenty-five years, and suffered for him. These men who make great
fortunes must make them at the expense of other people, and there are
very many who have gone down to make Phineas Duge what he is."

"I cannot understand it," Virginia said.
"Your uncle," Mrs. Trevor Harrison continued, "has a will of iron, is
absolutely self-centered; sentiment has never swayed him in the least.
He has climbed up on the bodies of weaker men. But there, in America
we blame no one for that. It is the strong man who lives, and the others
must die. Only I cannot quite understand this new development. I have
never known your uncle to do a purposeless thing."
"You say," Virginia remarked slowly, "that he has no heart. Why did he
send for me, then? Since I have been here, he has paid off the mortgage
which was making my father an old man, he has sent my brother to
college, and has promised, so long as I am with him, to allow them so
much money that they have no more anxiety at all. If you only knew
what a change this has made in all our lives, you would understand that
I do not like to hear you say that my uncle has no heart."
Mrs. Trevor Harrison stopped rocking her chair, and looked at the girl
thoughtfully.
"Well," she said, "what you tell me sounds very strange. Still, I don't
see what motive he could have had for doing all this."
"Why should you suspect a motive?" Virginia demanded.
"Because