commotion in the City when it gets about that Wingate is here or on his
way over."

"It's almost like a romance," Sarah declared, as she took the ice which
her cavalier had brought her and settled down once more in her chair.
"Tell me more about Mr. Wingate, please. Mr. Phipps I know, of course,
and he doesn't seem in the least terrifying. Is Mr. Wingate like that or
is he a dourer type?"

"John Wingate," Kendrick said reflectively, "is a much younger man than
Phipps---I should say that he wasn't more than thirty-five--and much
better-looking. I must say that in a struggle I shouldn't know which to
back. Wingate has sentiment and Phipps has none; conscience of which
Phipps hasn't a shred, and a sense of honour with which Phipps was
certainly never troubled. These points are all against him in a market
duel, but on the other hand he has a bigger outlook than Phipps, he has
nerves of steel and the grit of a hero. Did I tell you, by the by, that
he went into the war as a private and came out a brigadier?"

"Splendid!" Sarah murmured. "Now tell us where Peter Phipps comes in?"

"Well," Kendrick continued, "Phipps attracts sympathy because of his
lavish hospitality and apparent generosity, whilst Wingate is a man of
many reserves and has few friends, either on this side or the other. Then
Phipps, I should say, is the wealthier man, and in this present deal, at
any rate, he has marvellous support, so that financially he must tower
over Wingate. Then, too, I think he understands the tricks of the market
better over here, and he has a very dangerous confederate in Skinflint
Martin. What that old blackguard doesn't know of chicanery and crooked
dealing, the devil himself couldn't make use of. If he's put his own