"Oh! I see—well, you've made me very happy with your promise, I know you'll keep your word."
Stuart looked at her a moment curiously. Was there a tear trembling in the corner of her dark eyes as she spoke the last sentence, or was it his imagination?
He pressed her hand firmly.
"You are more beautiful than ever, Nan. Yes, I'll keep my word. Good-bye until I call."
And the woman smiled in triumph.
CHAPTER X
THE DEMI-GOD
The clouds of the panic slowly lifted and the sun began once more to shine. A fearless officer of the law had struck a blow for justice that marked the beginning of a new era of national life. And yet apparently the only men to profit by it were the giants who rode the storm it had created. The people were left in mental bewilderment. To their short-ranged vision the young District Attorney who lay prostrate on a bed of illness was a man who had been tried and found wanting. He had either wilfully and corruptly played into the hands of a powerful group of millionaires or had blunderingly done so. In either case the act was a crime.
Slowly but surely the prices of stocks began to mount and the great men who had bought them at the bottom grew greater.