say. Run away."

He rose and stood with his hands behind him, watching her. Ida made
what haste she could to the door, and sped out into the street.





CHAPTER III

ANTECEDENTS




It would not have been easy to find another instance of a union of
keen intellect and cold heart so singular as that displayed in the
character of Abraham Woodstock. The man s life had been strongly
consistent from the beginning; from boyhood a powerful will had
borne him triumphantly over every difficulty, and in each decisive
instance his will had been directed by a shrewd intelligence which
knew at once the strength of its own resources and the multiplied
weaknesses of the vast majority of men. In the pursuit of his ends
he would tolerate no obstacle which his strength would suffice to
remove. In boyhood and early manhood the exuberance of his physical
power was wont to manifest itself in brutal self-assertion. At
school he was the worst kind of bully, his ferociousness tempered by
no cowardice. Later on, he learned that a too demonstrative bearing
would on many occasions interfere with his success in life; he toned