President Rockland believed what he said. He seemed not to know that
Bonaparte dealt with a ragged, ignorant mob, and had back of him a
nation that had been in a drunken and bloody orgy for a period of years
and wanted to sober up. He seemed not to know that in this contest, the
clear-brained, sturdy American patriot was enlisted against him and what
he represented, and had determined to come once more into his own.



CHAPTER XVIII

GLORIA'S WORK BEARS FRUIT


In her efforts towards proselyting the rich, Gloria had not neglected
her immediate family. By arguments and by bringing to the fore concrete
examples to illustrate them, she had succeeded in awakening within her
father a curious and unhappy frame of mind. That shifting and illusive
thing we call conscience was beginning to assert itself in divers ways.

The first glimpse that Gloria had of his change of heart was at a dinner
party. The discussion began by a dyspeptic old banker declaring that
before the business world could bring the laboring classes to their
senses it would be necessary to shut down the factories for a time and
discontinue new enterprises in order that their dinner buckets and
stomachs might become empty.

Before Gloria could take up the cudgels in behalf of those seeking a
larger share of the profits of their labor, Mr. Strawn had done so. The
debate between the two did not last long and was not unduly heated, but