She stood close to the huge man, and looked straight up into his face. He remained for a moment motionless, yielding again to that fascination which always held him when in her 169 presence, and of which he could give no account to himself. That slight, girlish figure––how easily he could crush her!
“But you couldn’t, you know,” she said cryptically, as she shook her head.
“Couldn’t what?” he demanded.
“Crush me.”
He recoiled a step, struck by the sudden revelation that the girl had read his thought.
“You see, Mr. Ames,” she continued, “what a craven error is before truth. It makes a coward of you, doesn’t it? Your boasted power is only a mesmerism, which you throw like a huge net over your victims. You and they can break it, if you will.”
“Miss Carmen!” exclaimed the President. “We really must consider our interview ended. Let us make an appointment for another day.”
“I guess the appointment was made for to-day,” the girl said softly. “And by a higher power than any of us. Mr. Ames is the type of man who is slowly turning our Republican form of government into a despotism of wealth. He boasts that his power is already greater than a czar’s. You bow before it; and so the awful monster of privilege goes on unhampered, coiling its slimy tentacles about our national resources, our public utilities, and natural wealth. I––I can’t see how you, the head of this great nation, can stand trembling by and see him do it. It is to me incomprehensible.”
The President flushed. He made as if to reply, but restrained himself. Carmen gave no indication of leaving. A stern look then came into the President’s face. He stood for a few minutes in thought. Then he turned again to his desk and sat down.
“Please be seated,” he said, “both of you. I don’t know what quarrel there is between you two, and I am not interested in it. But you, Miss Carmen, represent the press; Mr. Ames, business. The things which have been voiced here this morning must remain with us alone. Now let us see if we can not meet on common ground. Is the attitude of your newspaper, Miss Carmen, one of hostility toward great wealth?”