"Why don't you add the hour, too," he urged half-plaintively, though he
smiled.

"Well, it was three o'clock in the morning to the minute," she answered.

"Old Father Time ought to make you his chief of staff," he remarked
gaily. "Now, I want to know," he added, with a visible effort of
determination, "what has happened since three o'clock in the morning,
six weeks and three days ago. I want you to tell me what has happened
to my concerns--to the railways, and also to the towns. I don't want you
to hide anything, because, if you do, I'll have Jim in, and Jim, under
proper control, will tell me the whole truth, and perhaps more than the
truth. That's the way with Jim. When he gets started he can't stop.
Tell me exactly everything."

Anxiety drove the colour from her cheeks. She shrank back.

"You must tell me," he urged. "I'd rather hear it from you than from
Dr. Rockwell, or Jim, or your father. Your telling wouldn't hurt as much
as anybody else's, if there has to be any hurt. Don't you understand--
but don't you understand?" he urged.

She nodded to herself in the mirror on the wall opposite. "I'll try to
understand," she replied presently; "Tell me, then: have they put someone
in my place?"

"I understand so," she replied.

He remained silent for a moment, his face very pale. "Who is running the