Yet he had practically to stand one
side, watching Newmark's slender, gray-clad, tense figure gliding
here and there, more silent, more reserved, more watchful every day.
The fight endured through most of the first half of the session.
When finally it became evident to Heinzman that Newmark would win,
he made the issue of toll rates the ditch of his last resistance,
trying to force legal charges so low as to eat up the profits. At
the last, however, the bill passed the board. The company had its
charter.
At what price only Newmark could have told. He had fought with the
tense earnestness of the nervous temperament that fights to win
without count of the cost. The firm was established, but it was as
heavily in debt as its credit would stand. Newmark himself, though
as calm and reserved and precise as ever, seemed to have turned
gray, and one of his eyelids had acquired a slight nervous twitch
which persisted for some months. He took his seat at the desk,
however, as calmly as ever. In three days the scandalised howls of
bribery and corruption had given place in the newspapers to some
other sensation.
"Joe," said Orde to his partner, "how about all this talk? Is there
really anything in it? You haven't gone in for that business, have
you?"
Newmark stretched his arms wearily.
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