time to attend to me or your family."

But Mr. Allen was out of hearing of the querulous tones before the
sentence was finished.

Of course he never meant that his wife should lose a cent, and to
satisfy his conscience, and impressed by his danger, he resolved that
as soon as he was out of this quaking morass of speculation he would
settle on his wife and each daughter enough to secure them in wealth
through life, and arrange it in such a way that no one could touch the
principal.

The large sum that he now secured eased up matters and helped him
greatly, and affairs began to wear a brightening aspect. He felt sure
that the stock he had invested in was destined to rise in time, and
indeed it already gave evidences of buoyancy. He noticed with an
inward chuckle that Mr. Goulden began to call a little oftener. He was
the best financial barometer in Wall Street.

But the case would require the most adroit and delicate management for
weeks still, and this Mr. Allen could have given. Success also
depended on a favorable state of the money market, and a good degree
of stability and quietness throughout the financial world. Political
changes in Europe, a war in Asia, heavy failures in Liverpool, London,
or Paris, might easily spoil all. Reducing Mr. Allen's vast
complicated operation to its final analysis, he had simply bet several
millions--all he had--that nothing would happen throughout the world
that could interfere with a scheme so problematical that the chances
could scarcely be called even.