her. And the fearless girl went, because it
would help Haynerd, though the Beaubien inwardly trembled.

Invitations to the number of three hundred had been issued to the
_elite_ of New York, announcing the formal opening of the newly
finished, magnificent Ames dwelling. These invitations were wrought in
enamel on cards of pure gold. Each had cost thirty dollars. The
mansion itself, twelve millions. A month prior to the opening, the
newspapers had printed carefully-worded announcements of the return of
Mrs. J. Wilton Ames and her daughter, after a protracted stay at
various foreign baths and rest-cures in the hope of restoring the
former's impaired health. But Mrs. Ames now felt that she could no
longer deprive society of her needed activities, and so had returned
to conduct it through what promised to be a season of unusual
brilliancy. The papers did not, however, state that J. Wilton had
himself recalled her, after quietly destroying his bill of divorce,
because he recognized the necessity of maintaining the social side of
his complicated existence on a par with his vast business affairs.

As Carmen and Haynerd approached the huge, white marble structure,
cupolaed, gabled, buttressed, and pinnacled, an overwhelming sense of
what it stood for suddenly came upon the girl, and she saw revealed in
a flash that side of its owner's life which for so many months she had
been pondering. The great shadows that seemed to issue from the
massive exterior of the building swept out and engulfed her; and she
turned and clasped Haynerd's arm with the feeling that she would
suffocate were she to remain longer in them.

"Perk up, little one," said Haynerd, taking her hand. "We'll go round
to the rear entrance, and I will present my business card there.
Ames's secretary telephoned me instructions, and I said I was going to
bring a lady reporter with me."

Carmen caught her breath as she passed through the tall, exquisitely
wrought iron gateway and along the marble walk which led to the rear.
Up the winding steps to the front entrance, where swung the marvelous
bronze doors which had stirred the imaginations of two continents,
streamed the favored of the fashionable world. Among them Carmen saw
many whom she recognized. The buffoon, Larry Beers, was there,
swinging jauntily along with the bejeweled wife of Samson, the
multimillionaire packer. Kane and his wife, and Weston followed.
Outside the gates there was incessant chugging of aut