"It was bound to come," said Andrew. "We know how we stand."
"Florence and I leave to-morrow! There is no train to-night."
"That must be as you wish," responded Andrew, as he went out.
Half an hour later Florence found him on the terrace. Her face was flushed and her eyes were angry.
"Andrew," she cried, "do you mean to persist in this madness? Shall I try to make peace with Leonard before it is too late?"
"I'm sorry it's too late already. I can't think he sent you."
"No; I came because I felt I must. Can't you see that you are bent on ruining yourself and bringing discredit on the firm?"
"I think not; but it's a point on which we can't agree. I can't blame you for taking Leonard's side."
"Oh," she cried, "try to be sensible! Think how Leonard has developed the business and earned the money that you have spent. Try to remember all you owe to him."
A queer smile crept into Andrew's eyes. He knew what he owed to Leonard, but Florence must not guess. She should keep her faith in her husband, if she could.
"At the worst, he would leave the firm with a very much larger capital than when he joined it, and there are, no doubt, other firms which would welcome him."
Florence turned upon him with a mocking laugh.
"But Leonard is not going to leave the firm! Tell me, for one thing, why you wish him to?"
It was far from Andrew's intention that she should ever learn.
"Well," he said slowly, "our views are so different on almost every point that it's impossible we should get on. I'm very sorry, Florence, but you can't mend the matter. The split was inevitable."
"And you venture to set your immature judgment against Leonard's?"
"I'm forced to. Don't say any more, Florence. I suppose the thing must trouble you. Forgive me, if you can."
"I'll try, when you have found out your folly," she said, and left him.
It was with a strange sense of detachment that Andrew attended the first meeting of the shareholders in the Rain Bluff mine. He had thought of the event with great anxiety, made numerous plans and abandoned them, and now he had come, in a sense, unprepared, determined to submit two general propositions and let the shareholders decide for themselves. Ignorant of the usual mode of procedure at such meetings, he had consulted nobody better informed, and realized that he might be ruled out of order or shouted down; but he was sensible of a coolness that somewhat surprised him.