'Doesn't a strong man always get to the front?' the Duchess asked.
'Yes,' said Hiram, 'I guess that's so. Well, I happened to get to know him, and we became a bit friendly, and we had many a pleasant chat together. He was as frank as frank, told me all his plans. "I mean to make this little old place move," he said to me.'
'Well, he has made it move,' said Helena. She was immensely interested, and her eyes dilated with excitement.
'A little too fast, perhaps,' said Hiram meditatively. 'I don't know. Anyhow, he had things all his own way for a goodish spell.'
'What did he do when he had things his own way?' Helena asked impatiently.
'Well, he tried to introduce reforms——'
'Yes, I knew he would do that,' the girl said, with the proud air of a sort of ownership.
'You seem to have known all about him,' Mrs. Selwyn said, smiling loftily, sweetly, as at the romantic enthusiasm of youth.
'Well, so I do somehow,' Helena answered almost sharply; certainly with impatience. She was not thinking of Mrs. Selwyn.
'Now, Mr. Borringer, go on—about his reforms.'