Mather gave him the paper. "You will see that I have permission to build ten feet farther if I want to, and fifteen broader. I may also build another wharf if I wish, lower down. Are you satisfied?" He touched the bell. "You may come in now, Miss Jenks. Thank you for taking it so easily, Mr. Daggett. I won't keep you from your game any longer. Good-day."
—"And before I left the office he was hard at work again, Mr. Ellis," reported Daggett. "Save me, but he's taken pretty good care of himself, and that's a fact."
Ellis had no comments to make; he did his growling to himself. Seeing nothing further to do, he left Mather alone.
Thus time passed by till that midsummer day when Ellis took the trolley to Chebasset and, once there, strolled among its streets. He viewed the mill from a distance and gritted his teeth at the sight. Mather was well ensconced; it seemed altogether too likely that he might win a wife, among his other successes. Then the promoter left the town and climbed above it on the winding road, viewing the estates of the summer residents as one by one he passed their gates. Should he enter at the Judge's?
A light step sounded on the road as he hesitated at the gate. Someone spoke his name, and there stood Judith Blanchard.
"Here, and in business hours?" she asked.
"My day's work was done," he answered. "Besides, it was not all pleasure that brought me."
Judith's eyes brightened. "Tell me," she suggested.
"Why should I tell you?" he asked bluntly. But the brusqueness only pleased her; he was a man of secrets.