CHAPTER XVII

The social mill ground on for another month.  Montague withdrew himself as much as his brother would let him; but Alice, was on the go all night and half the day.  Oliver had sold his racing automobile to a friend—­he was a man of family now, he said, and his wild days were over.  He had got, instead, a limousine car for Alice; though she declared she had no need of it—­if ever she was going to any place, Charlie Carter always begged her to use his.  Charlie’s siege was as persistent as ever, as Montague noticed with annoyance.

The great law case was going forward.  After weeks of study and investigation, Montague felt that he had the matter well in hand; and he had taken Mr. Hasbrook’s memoranda as a basis for a new work of his own, much more substantial.  Bit by bit; as he dug into the subject, he had discovered a state of affairs in the Fidelity Company, and, indeed, in the whole insurance business and its allied realms of banking and finance, which shocked him profoundly.  It was impossible for him to imagine how such conditions could exist and remain unknown to the public—­more especially as every one in Wall Street with whom he talked seemed to know about them and to take them for granted.

His client’s papers had provided him with references to the books; Montague had taken this dry material and made of it a protest which had the breath of life in it.  It was a thing at which he toiled with deadly earnestness; it was not merely a struggle of one man to get a few thousand dollars, it was an appeal in behalf of millions of helpless people whose trust had been betrayed.  It was the first step in a long campaign, which the young lawyer meant should force a great evil into the light of day.

He went over his bill of complaint with Mr. Hasbrook, and he was glad to see that the work he had done made its impression upon him.  In fact, his client was a little afraid that some of his arguments might be too radical in tone—­from the strictly legal point of view, he made haste to explain.  But Montague reassured him upon this point.

And then came the day when the great ship was ready for launching.  The news must have spread quickly, for a few hours after the papers in the suit had been filed, Montague received a call from a newspaper reporter, who told him of the excitement in financial circles, where the thing had fallen like a bomb.  Montague explained the purpose of the suit, and gave the reporter a number of facts which he felt certain would attract attention to the matter.  When he picked up the paper the next morning, however, he was surprised to find that only a few lines had been given to the case, and that his interview had been replaced by one with an unnamed official of the Fidelity, to the effect that the attack upon the company was obviously for black-mailing purposes.

That was the only ripple which Montague’s work produced upon the surface of the pool; but there was a great commotion among the fish at the bottom, about which he was soon to learn.