"Well, there were two reasons. One is frankly this. Your firm has a contract for field artillery—and now you are in the service."
"I see! It is not now my firm. I gave up my partnership."
"So I saw, but who of these hungry contractors will believe that you gave up—a fortune—to enter the army! The facts are either not well known or have been misstated."
"Very likely. I gave up what you speak of as a fortune as you gave up a great income at the bar, and for the same reason I withdrew all my capital. Even the rental of my mills will go to the Sanitary Commission. I could not leave a doubt or the least cause for suspicion."
"I was sure of you, but this has been a well-nursed scandal, due to an influential lot of disappointed contractors who would have controlled the giving of that contract had I not come into office. I shall kill it dead. Trust that to me."
"Thank you, Stanton, I could have stood it."
"Yes, but you do not know, my dear Penhallow, what Washington is at present. Well, let it go. It is now my business. Do you know this Mr. Swallow?"
"Know him? Yes—a usurious scamp of a lawyer, who to our relief has left Westways. Do not trust him. I presume that I owe this talk about me to him."
"Well, yes, to him and his associates."
"What does he want now?"