If my Zoe came back I'd like to feel--I'd like to feel that I had saved things alone; that no woman's money made me safe.

If Zoe or if--" He was going to say, "If Carmen came back," for his mind was moving in past scenes; but he stopped short and looked around helplessly.

Then presently, as though by an effort, he added with a bravura note in his voice: "The world has been full of trouble for a long time, but there have always been men to say to trouble, 'I am master, I have the mind to get above it all.' Well, I am one of them." There was no note of vanity or bombast in his voice as he said this, and in his eyes that new underglow deepened and shone.

Perhaps in this instant he saw more of his future than he would speak of to anyone on earth.

Perhaps prevision was given him, and it was as the Big Financier had said to Maitre Fille, that his philosophy was now, at the last, to be of use to him.