"Since this morning," he said, "I have been offered three positions."
"Oh!" cried Judith. The involuntary note of surprise showed how she had underrated him, and Mather bit his lip.
Ellis spoke. "If you will take a position on the street-railroad——"
"Nothing subordinate there!" cut in Mather very positively.
"Then," said Ellis, "if you care to be the head of the water company——"
"Oh!" Judith exclaimed before Ellis had completed his offer. "Such an opportunity!"
Mather himself looked at Ellis in surprise. It was an opening which, coming from any other source, he would have accepted eagerly, as a task in which he could give free play to all his powers. Did Ellis really mean it? But the promoter, having swiftly asked himself the same question, was sure of his own wisdom. The place needed a man: here was one. Besides, Ellis would have given much to tie Mather to him.
"I mean it," he said positively.
"You must accept," added Judith.
It was too much for Mather to bear. His defeat by Ellis and his loss of Judith—both of these he could sustain as separate calamities. But when he saw her thus siding with his victor, Mather forgot himself, forgot that Ellis was not a man to defy lightly, and spoke the impolitic truth.