"So this is my business creation!" she exclaimed, with satisfaction. Allen looked first at her and then at Mr. Gorham. Then he smiled consciously.
"While you are about it, Mr. Gorham," he said, impulsively, "I wish you would disintegrate Alice and Mr. Covington."
A momentary shadow passed over the faces of all who knew what had occurred.
"That dissolution took place last night," Mr. Gorham replied, quietly.
Alice's cheeks were flaming, but her smile was irresistible as she spoke.
"I'll tell you all about it, Allen, if you'll come into the conservatory."
XXXI
A great event requires retrospective consideration. Unlike the laws of perspective, distance gives it greater size. So it was with Gorham's supreme and final demonstration of his strength. To Covington, who, true to his promise of the night before, was present at this crucial meeting of the Board of Directors, and marvelled that his chief demanded of him only a statement regarding the real purchaser of the stock, this dissolution of the Consolidated Companies appeared as an act of sacrilege; to his associates, aghast at the knowledge that they were powerless to prevent him, it seemed the epitome of treachery; to his family it meant a sublime exhibit of self-sacrifice;—to himself it was the crowning point of his career, and a justification of his life-work.
"You know what this means?" Litchfield had demanded of him. "You realize that your action to-morrow will deprive us of millions, and will plunge the country into a panic which will cost that dear public which you profess to love, more than we should have kept from them in a decade?"
"Yes," replied Gorham, resolutely; "I realize it all. It is a simple case of surgery—it may be necessary to sacrifice the limb to save the life. You, gentlemen, have had it in your power to place the standard of the business world so high that no longer would other nations gaze at our marvellous machine, appalled by its pace—politically, socially, financially—wondering whether they or we read correctly the danger-signals ahead. You have had it in your power, and you refused to embrace the opportunity; and if men of your intelligence and high standing in the world are not ready for it, then the world itself is not ready. The people have trusted themselves to me, and have placed in my hands power beyond that which has ever yet been given; now that I have learned how that power may be misused against them, I will prevent their betrayal."