But Martha had had no counteractant to soften or obliterate the thoughts of her blasted hopes.  The refuge of the convent appealed to her as the one remaining avenue by which she might escape from her youth and its recollections.

It is impossible for Trueman and Martha Densmore to ever again be lovers; the inexorable ban of the church is between them.  Yet they can be friends.  And Trueman feels that in Martha he has found his firmest friend and advisor.

“You will hear from me from time to time,” she says as they part.  “I am confident that you will do your duty; that you will awaken the finer instincts in the delegates.  With the scenes that have surrounded you in Wilkes-Barre, you cannot be an advocate of violence as a means of settling the struggle for the restoration of the rights of the people.”

“It shall be my untiring labor to avert the adoption of any measure that entails an appeal to force,” Trueman assures her.

On his arrival at Chicago he finds the convention already in session.  An hour in the hall convinces him that the result will be nugatory.  The radicals are in the majority and the proposals they make are temporary expedients that look only to appeasing the demand of the masses for action against the usurpers of the public rights.

With a view to defeating the objects of the conference, the Magnates have contrived to send a number of their hirelings as delegates.  These are among the loudest in demanding impossible remedies.  It is not long before Trueman discovers who these spies are, and he loses no time in exposing them in open conference.

This action brings him into prominence.

“Who is this delegate from Pennsylvania?” asks Professor Talbot, a venerable scholar sent by the Governor of Missouri to represent that state, of Nevins, a neighboring delegate.

“He is a convert to the cause of the people,” comes the quick reply.

“A tool of the Coal Barons, you mean,” observes a New Yorker.  “I knew him three years ago when he was the attorney for the Paradise Coal Company,” he continues, “and a more relentless man to the miners never was known in Pennsylvania.”

“Yes, I know.  He was once a counsel for the Paradise Company,” assents the champion of Trueman.  “I know his record from A to Z. You can’t find a straighter man in this conference.  He has come out for the people and I believe he is sincere.”

“Whoever he is, or whatever he has been,” says the Professor, “it is evident that he has the power of reading character.  He was not here two hours before he detected the presence of the goats in our fold.”

“Would you like to meet him?” asks Nevins.

“Indeed, I should be pleased to do so.”

Professor Talbot and the friendly delegate approach Trueman.

For an hour or more the three are engrossed in animated conversation.  Professor Talbot is delighted to find that Trueman is conversant with the most complex questions of the hour.