"I fancy young Stanton hasn't been above some wire-pulling," she
remarked. "He sent his prospective sister-in-law, Melissa Blake, to ask
me to use my influence with Uncle Peter in his behalf."
"He needn't have troubled," Mr. Hubbard returned. "Mr. Calvin supported
him from the first."
"Oh, yes," Ethel said; "Mrs. Frostwinch and Mrs. Bodewin Ranger chose
Stanton long ago and persuaded Mr. Calvin to help them."
"I can't fancy Mr. Calvin as anybody's tool," commented Kent, who would
have regarded his companion's words as a trifle too frank to be spoken
at the table of Mr. Calvin's niece, had his mind been in a condition to
take exception to anything that she said.
"Isn't that Melissa Blake," asked Mr. Hubbard of Edith, "the one you
recommended to me as a copyist?"
"Yes, I hope you found her satisfactory."
Mr. Hubbard smiled somewhat grimly.
"Indeed he did not," broke in Mrs. Hubbard speaking for him. "She broke
confidence."
"Broke confidence!" echoed Edith, in astonishment. "Melissa Blake?"
"Yes," Hubbard returned. "I really didn't mean to tell you, but my
wife, you see, has all the indignation of a woman against a woman."
"But how did she break confidence?" demanded Edith. "I would trust her
as implicitly as I would myself."
"The papers she copied," was the reply, "were the plans for a syndicate
to put up mills at Fentonville.
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