The Governors | Page 2

when she had left college, an unusually early graduate, and
returned to her father's tiny home to become the acknowledged belle of

the neighbourhood. Here, though, she felt her looks of small avail; she
might reign as a queen in Wellham Springs, but she felt herself a very
insignificant person in the home of her uncle, the great railway
millionaire and financier, Mr. Phineas Duge. Her courage had almost
evaporated when at last, after a very careful knock at the door, an
English footman ushered her into the small and jealously guarded
sanctum in which the great man was sitting. She passed only a few
steps across the threshold, and stood there, a timid, hesitating figure,
her dark eyes very anxiously searching the features of the man who had
risen from his seat to greet her.
"So this is my niece Virginia," he said, holding out both his hands. "I
am glad to see you. Take this chair close to me. I am getting an old man,
you see, and I have many whims. I like to have any one with whom I
am talking almost at my elbow. Now tell me, my dear, what sort of a
journey you have had. You look a little tired, or is it because everything
here is strange to you?"
All her fears seemed to be melting away. Never could she have
imagined a more harmless-looking, benevolent, and handsome old
gentleman. He was thin and of only moderate stature. His white hair, of
which he still had plenty, was parted in the middle and brushed away in
little waves. He was clean-shaven, and his grey eyes were at once soft
and humorous. He had a delicate mouth, refined features, and his slow,
distinct speech was pleasant, almost soothing to listen to. She felt
suddenly an immense wave of relief, and she realized perhaps for the
first time how much she had dreaded this meeting.
"I am not really tired at all," she assured him, "only you see I have
never been in a big city, and it is very noisy here, isn't it? Besides, I
have never seen anything so beautiful as this house. I think it frightened
me a little."
He laid his hand upon hers kindly.
"I imagine," he said, smiling, "that you will very soon get used to this.
You will have the opportunity, if you choose."

She laughed softly.
"If I choose!" she repeated. "Why, it is all like fairyland to me."
He nodded.
"You come," he said, "from a very quiet life. You will find things here
different. Do you know what these are?"
He touched a little row of black instruments which stood on the top of
his desk. She shook her head doubtfully.
"I am not quite sure," she admitted.
"They are telephones," he said. "This one"--touching the first--"is a
private wire to my offices in Wall Street. This one"--laying a finger
upon the second--"is a private wire to the bank of which I am president.
These two," he continued, "are connected with the two brokers whom I
employ. The other three are ordinary telephones--two for long distance
calls and one for the city. When you came in I touched this knob on the
floor beneath my foot. All the telephones were at once disconnected
here and connected with my secretaries' room. I can sit here at this table
and shake the money-markets of the world. I can send stocks up or
down at my will. I can ruin if I like, or I can enrich. It is the fashion
nowadays to speak lightly of the mere man of money, yet there is no
king on his throne who can shake the world as can we kings of the
money-market by the lifting even of a finger."
"Are you a millionaire?" she asked timidly. "But, of course, you must
be, or you could not live in a house like this."
He laid his hand gently upon hers.
"Yes," he said, "I am a millionaire a good many times over, or I should
not be of much account in New York. But there, I have told you enough
about myself. I sent for you, as you know, because there are times
when I feel a little lonely, and I thought that if my sister could spare
one of her children, it would be a kindly act, and one which I might

perhaps be able to repay. Do you think that you would like to live here
with me, Virginia, and be mistress of this house?"
She shrank a little away. The prospect was not without its terrifying
side.
"Why, I should love it," she declared, "but I simply shouldn't dare to
think of it. You don't understand, I am afraid, the way we live down at
Wellham Springs. We have