“Am I right,” she asked softly, “in imagining that just now things are going a little wrong?”

“I am fighting for my life,” he said tersely.  “Wherever I have turned during the last few months I seem to have encountered the opposition of your father’s millions.  Our sales are going down day by day.  The great advertisers are practically ignoring us.  We are losing money fast.  That is what happens to any one who dares to raise a finger against the accursed idols of this country.  Three of the greatest advertisement contractors have given us notice that they have struck off our paper from their list.  It is your father’s doings, Stella.  I had hoped something from this illness of his, but the thing goes on.  Do you know whether he is really laid up, or whether this is part of a scheme?”

“I am not sure,” she answered.  “I have been told to-day that it is part of a scheme.”

“Who told you?” he asked quickly.

“Peter Littleson,” she answered.  “I have been lunching with him.”

“Peter Littleson!” he interrupted.  “But he is one of your father’s allies!  He and Bardsley and Weiss and your father are what they call here ‘The Invincibles!’”

She nodded.

“I am not sure,” she answered, “but I fancy there is going to be a split.”

He was interested now, almost eager.

“Tell me what you know!” he begged.

“I know this,” she answered; “that Littleson asked me to lunch to-day to find out whether my father’s illness was genuine or not, and he gave me to understand that they suspected him of playing them false.  I believe that as usual my father has the best of it.  Peter Littleson admitted to me that just now, at any rate, he held them all in the hollow of his hand.”

Norris Vine looked out of the window for a moment.  His face was haggard.

“I have begun,” he said slowly, “to lose faith in myself, and when one does that here the end is not far off.  I believe that Littleson is right, Stella.  I believe that your father, if it pleased him, could take them one by one and break them, as he is doing me.”

“Supposing, on the other hand,” she said, “something were to happen so that they were in a position to break him?”

“Then,” he answered coolly, “it would be the very best thing that could happen for the country and for me.  There’s no morality about speculation, of course, and the finance of this country is one of the most ghastly things in the world.  All the same, there are degrees of rascality, and there is no one who has sinned against every law of decency and respect for his fellows like Phineas Duge.  What are you doing to-night, Stella?  Will you dine with me?”

She shook her head.

“Not to-night, Norris,” she said.  “I have something else to do; but before I go I want you to answer me a question.  Once before, when my father had you in a corner, I helped you out, and you know the price I paid.”