"I hope you are going with us to the opera, Mr. Lennox," said Dyker.
The old man shook his silvered head.
"No," said he in the slow, deliberate utterance that he had acquired with his first million of dollars; "I am on my way farther down town than that."
"But you had better come," urged Wesley, knowing that refusal was certain. "This is the last performance of the season."
"On the contrary," the merchant chuckled kindly, "I think you had better let Marian go to the opera alone and come along with me. I am going to the first performance of a new season."
"Where's that?"
"To the Municipal Improvement Mass Meeting at Cooper Union."
That made it Dyker's turn to smile.
"Oh, but I couldn't do that," he said. "I'm on the other side, you know."
"Against good government?" The elder man manifestly enjoyed this mild thrust.