It
did not seem to her necessary, however, to say anything. Two of the men
she met for the first time, but all were known to her by sight. There
was Stephen Weiss, the head of a great trust, long, lean, with
inscrutable face, and eyes hidden behind thick spectacles; Higgins, who
virtually controlled a great railway system; Littleson and Bardsley,
millionaires both, and politicians. It was a gathering of men of almost
limitless power; men who, according to some of the papers, lived with
their hands upon their country's throat. Littleson leaned over and spoke
to her not unkindly.
"I am sure," he said, "that your uncle has made a wise choice. There are
some secrets too great to be in one man's charge alone, and besides--"
Phineas Duge lifted his hand.
"Never mind the rest," he said. "I have not explained those
circumstances as yet to my niece. If you are quite ready, we will take
our coffee in the library." He turned to Virginia, who had risen at once
to leave them. "In an hour and a half exactly, Virginia," he said, "come
into the library. Not before."
She glanced at her watch and made a note of the hour. Then she wandered
off to one of the smaller drawing-rooms, and, to relieve a certain
strain of which she was somehow conscious, she played the piano softly.
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