It was Bingham.
"So you have concluded to give us a little attention, finally?" was
Jane's greeting. Her tone was slightly hectoring; this was to punish him
for having lately taken more of her thought than she felt him entitled
to.
As a matter of fact, Jane was uncomfortably mindful that more than once
within the past month she had opened the morning paper to Building Notes
before giving due heed to Insurance News. She had been distinctly pleased
to read that the Bingham Construction Company had just got one big
building ready for tenancy, or had just been awarded the contract for
another; and once, for a week, she had followed the head of it through a
particularly stubborn bricklayers' strike with the most avid interest.
Indeed, she had only been brought back to herself by a fire which had
damaged one of Brower's companies to the extent of five thousand dollars
and another to the extent of ten. After that she chained her wandering
attention to such matters as short rates and unearned premiums, the
organization of new companies and the bankruptcies of old ones, the
upward climbing of sub-solicitors and assistant managers, the losses
suffered by the companies represented by the agency of Brower & Brand,
and, above all, the closest scrutiny for the name of Theodore L. Brower
himself. Nothing pleased her more than to read a paragraph announcing
that he had gone East to attend a general conference--except, of course,
his return.
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