Also Mr.
Wagstaff had caused the stockholders of Free Gold a heavy loss--which
was only offset by the fact that the Free Gold properties were
producing richly. None of this was even openly flung at her. She
gathered it piecemeal. And it galled her. She could not openly defend
either Bill or herself against the shadowy scandalmongers.
Slowly it dawned upon her, with a bitterness born of her former
experience with Granville, that she had lost something of the standing
that certain circles had accorded her as the wife of a successful
mining man. It made her ponder. Was Bill so far wrong, after all, in
his estimate of them? It was a disheartening conclusion. She had come
of a family that stood well in Granville; she had grown up there; if
life-time friends blew hot and cold like that, was the game worth
playing?
In so far as she could she gave the lie to some of the petty gossip.
Whereas at first she had looked dubiously on spending Bill's money to
maintain the standard of living they had set up, she now welcomed that
deposit of five thousand dollars as a means to demonstrate that even in
his absence he stood behind her financially--which she began to
perceive counted more than anything else.
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