hoked back the tears as she added: "The girl comes home
every night with an empty purse, no matter how full it may have been
in the morning. What does she do with the money? Follow her some day
and see."

Carmen's slight success in the field of letters still further aroused
Haynerd's interest. The peacefully somnolent Social Era, he thought,
might awaken to new things under the stimulus of such fresh writing as
hers. Perhaps life did hold something of real value after all. Would
she furnish him with a column or two on the peculiar social aspect of
the metropolis?

She would, and did. And the result was that the staid conservative
sheet was given a smart shaking; and several prominent society people
sat up and blinked. The article was in no way malicious. It was not
even condemnatory. It but threw a clear light from a somewhat unusual
angle upon certain phases of New York's social life, and uncovered a
few of the more subtly hidden springs of its peculiar activity.

Among those who read her essay in the Social Era was J. Wilton Ames.
He first lay back in his chair and laughed uproariously. And then,
when his agents discovered for him the identity of the author, he
glowered. The Beaubien was still standing between him and this budding
genius. And though he might, and would, ultimately ruin the Beaubien
financially, yet this girl, despite her social ostracism, bade fair to
earn with her facile pen enough to maintain them both in luxury. So he
bent anew to his vengeful schemes, for he would make them come to him.
As Trustee, he would learn what courses the girl was pursuing in the
University--for he had long known that she was in attendance there.
Then he would learn who her associates were; what suggestions and
advice her instructors gave her; and her plans for the future. And he
would trace her sources of income and apply pressure at the most vital
point. He had never in his life been successfully balked. Much less by
a woman.

Then Haynerd came to congratulate Carmen again, and to request that
she attend with him the formal opening of the new Ames mansion, the
great Fifth Avenue palace, for he wanted her vivid, first-hand
impressions for his account of the brilliant affair in the Social Era.
As reporters, he explained, they would of necessity remain in
seclusion, and the girl might disguise to such an extent as to prevent
recognition, if she chose. It was business for him, and an opportunity
for rich experience for