She nodded. "Yes, every one of them."
"Well," he said, "if I have a majority of stock—either mine or belonging to men who belong to me—all the rich swells in the State can't touch me. Lydia, Mather made this street railroad for me; he didn't know he was doing it, but he did it, and when I wanted it I took it. It's the best thing I've struck yet, and I'm not going to let it go. Nor the profits, either. Transfers and extra cars? I tell you the public's got to ride, and ride in what I allow 'em."
"Very well," she replied. "You usually know what you're about. But the papers——"
"Rot, rot, rot!" he interrupted. "You hear so much of this Mather talk that you believe it. Do you read the Newsman?"
"Abiel won't have it in the house."
"Buy a copy once in a while, when you feel blue. You'll see that Mather's a man of straw."
"Does Judith Blanchard think him so?"
He turned upon her. "Doesn't she?"
"I don't know what she thinks," she confessed.
"Then," he advised, softening his frown, "wait and watch. I tell you it's going all right."