Hubbard, and had by him been employed to copy these
papers for use at a meeting of the proposed stockholders, which was to
take place in a few days.
"Mrs. Fenton tells me," he had said, "that you are to be trusted. It is
absolutely essential that you do not mention these plans to any living
being. Perfect secrecy is expected from you, and it is only because
Mrs. Fenton is your guarantee that I run the risk of putting them into
your hands."
"I think you can trust me," she had answered; "even if," she had added,
with the ghost of a smile, "there were anybody that I know who would be
at all likely to be interested."
And now the temptation had come to her in a way of which she had never
dreamed. She had gone on with her copying, smiling to herself at the
coincidence which put into the hands of a Feltonville girl this plan
for the metamorphosis of the sleepy old village into a bustling
manufacturing town, but she had not considered that this scheme might
have important bearing upon the fortunes of her lover. She knew that
Stanton's father had owned meadows along the river where the new
factories were to lie, and she knew also that when old Mr. Stanton died
these had been sold with a condition of redemption, but until this
moment she had not connected the facts. She did not understand
business, and had been puzzling her brain as she wrote, to understand
what was meant by the statement that a certain company would sell a
"six months' option at seventy thousand dollars" on a water-power for
two thousand dollars.
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