“It’s pity for me—­it isn’t love,” the boy replied, bitterly.  “I’m a failure and you’re sorry for me.  I wanted you when I thought I could make good.  Now that I know I can’t, it’s different.  But I’ll never forget it, Alice, never.  Don’t blame her, Mr. Gorham.  Good-bye.”

He rushed out, not trusting himself to speak further, and a moment later those left behind heard the door close quietly as he went out into the darkness.

XXVI

The Executive Committee were ready to make their first move; and at a meeting at which Gorham was not present, they had voted to ask the president to call a special meeting of the Board of Directors.  The call for the meeting was supplemented by a letter to the Directors, signed by each member of the committee, setting forth that the business to be considered included the rescinding of a resolution passed at a previous meeting, placing plenipotentiary powers in the hands of the president, and also to consider the desirability of so dividing his present duties that the responsibilities might rest on several shoulders instead of upon his alone.  It further recited that various criticisms of the president would be considered at that time,—­specifically, that Mr. Gorham was using the Consolidated Companies for his own private ends; that he prevented his associates from being recognized in their full relation to the work, the credit for which he himself monopolized; that he was devoting a large part of his time at the expense of the Companies in straightening out certain domestic complications, as a result of which the corporation was losing ground, and was even being threatened by adverse legislation in Washington, against which it was his duty to protect it.  And finally, it was claimed that the president had at least on one occasion taken advantage of his official position to make certain investments for his own personal advantage.

A copy of this letter accidentally fell into Gorham’s hands, and his indignation at its needlessly antagonistic wording was tempered by several elements of surprise.  The frankness with which the grievances were stated was an evidence that his associates were prepared to force the break with him, and to dispense with whatever value his connection with the corporation might have.  The reference to his domestic complications surprised him not a little, showing as it did a familiarity with this subject which he had not supposed to have become common property.  The suggestion that he had been false to the ideals which he himself had imposed could only be construed as a gratuitous affront; yet these men who constituted the Executive Committee were not those who would lightly do this.  He could quite understand their resentment of both his attitude and his words at the last meeting—­he had expected them to make an effort to wrest from him, but in such a way as not to jeopardize their own interests, the supreme authority which he had forced from them; yet they all knew him too well even to suggest any transaction on his part so at variance with the standards which he had established.