“Then he failed, after all his trouble?”
“Who failed?”
“The—the young man you speak of?”
Edna found her rôle of deceiver a difficult one. She was glad her father could not see her face, and bitterly regretted giving Marsten a promise not to tell of his visit.
“Yes, he failed. Of course there was not time to canvass the men properly, and at the meeting Gibbons, who is a glib talker, won over enough to defeat the efforts of the others. It wasn’t much of a victory, but sufficient for the purpose. They had, I understand, a very stormy meeting, and Gibbons won by some dozen votes or thereabouts.”
“And what is to be done now?”
“Oh, we are just where we were. I’ll wait a few days more, and, if the men do not come back, I’ll fill their places with a new lot. I don’t want to do that except as a last resort, but I won’t be played with very much longer. Now, dear girl, you know all about it; so to bed, to bed, at once, and sleep soundly. This dissipation cannot be allowed, you know.”
He kissed her and patted her affectionately on the shoulder. The girl, with a guilty feeling in her heart, crept up stairs as noiselessly as she had descended.