“What is it, then?” asked Alice.

The boy passed his hand across his forehead and rose to his feet.  “I don’t know what it is,” he answered, irresolutely.  “I am all upset to-night—­do you mind if I go up to the library now, Mr. Gorham, and wait for you there?”

Gorham held out his hand and Allen grasped it firmly, yet turned his face away.

“Have you lost faith in me, too, my boy?  Has it really come to that?”

“I beg of you, let me go now,” Allen replied, controlling himself with difficulty.  “You know I shall never lose faith in you.”

“You are in no condition for work to-night,” Gorham remarked, quietly.  “Draw your chair up here beside me, and let us talk it all out right now.”

Allen looked hesitatingly at Eleanor and Alice and then at Gorham.  “Not now?” he said.

“Why not now, Allen?” Alice asked, curious to know what so affected him.  “You told me once that you were my business creation, and that I must accept the responsibility whether I wished it or not.  Surely I am entitled to be present.”

“Affairs have changed since then.  If I don’t hold my tongue now, I shall say things for which you and your father will never forgive me.”

“I want to hear them, Allen,” she insisted; “I have a right to hear them.”

Gorham was impressed by the girl’s attitude.  “She is right,” he added.  “Now, out with it, boy, and let us get to the bottom of things.”

Then the pent-up thoughts which had been collecting during the past few months burst forth.

“You have made me do it, Mr. Gorham,” the boy cried, passionately.  “You would never have heard it from my lips except for that, but I can’t stand it any longer.  I have tried hard since we talked that last time to convince myself that I was wrong, but I can’t do it.  I know it’s because I can’t see things the right way, but, whatever the cause, the trouble is there.  To me the Companies seems based on interests which are wholly selfish, and to be accomplishing good only because doing business on this basis brings extra dividends to its stockholders.  It is growing bigger and more powerful and more irresistible, but with this increasing power there is also increasing danger; and I feel sure, Mr. Gorham, as I told you before, that some day the public will have to pay the price.  When the dike breaks the flood is going to wipe out all the advantages which the people have received, and more too.”

The boy paused for breath and waited, expecting to hear Gorham’s stern reproaches, but none came.  The amazed expression both on Eleanor’s and Alice’s faces, however, evidenced the heresy of his words.