a weak man, and a too liberal beer diet was not good
for him.

"Are you in earnest, Mr. Spencer?" he queried in a bewildered way.

"Dead in earnest. You write the necessary letter to Miss Wynton while
I am here, and I hand you the first twenty in notes. You are to tell
her to call Monday noon at any bank you may select, and she will be
given her tickets and a hundred pounds. When I am certain that she has
started I undertake to pay you a further sum of sixty pounds. I make
only two conditions. You must guarantee to star her work, as it should
help her some, and my identity must not be disclosed to her under any
circumstances. In a word, she must regard herself as the accredited
correspondent of 'The Firefly.' If she appears to be a trifle rattled
by your generosity in the matter of terms, you must try and look as if
you did that sort of thing occasionally and would like to do it
often."

The editor pushed his chair away from the table. He seemed to require
more air. "Again I must ask you if you actually mean what you say?" he
gasped.

Spencer opened a pocketbook and counted four five-pound notes out of a
goodly bundle. "It is all here in neat copperplate," he said, placing
the notes on the table. "Maybe you haven't caught on to the root idea
of the proposition," he continued, seeing that the other man was
staring at him blankly. "I want Miss Wynton to have a real good time.
I also want to lift her up a few rungs of the journalistic ladder. But
she is sensitive, and would resent patronage; so I must not figure in
the affair at all. I have no other motive at the back of my head. I'm
putting up two hundred pounds out of sheer philanthropy. Will you
help?"

"There are points about this amazing proposal that require
elucidation," said the editor slowly. "Travel articles might possibly
come within the scope of 'The Firefly'; but I am aware that Miss
Wynton is what might be termed an exceedingly attractive young lady.
For instance, you wouldn't be philanthropic on my account."

"You never can tell. It all depends how your case appealed to me. But
if you are hinting that I intend to use my scheme for the purpose of
winning Miss Wynton's favorable regard, I must say that she strikes
me as the kind of girl who would think she had been swindled if she
learned the truth. In any event, I may never see her again, and it is
certainly not my design to follow her to Switzerland. I don't kick at
your questions. You're old enough