on was taken all the kindly efforts of her mentors at
Marypoint were rallied in her support. They had advised out of their
wisdom, but acted from their hearts. And the day on which the principal
of the college notified her that the Skandinavia Corporation of Quebec
had signified its willingness to absorb her into its service as typist
and stenographer, at one hundred dollars per month, was the happiest she
had known since her well-loved mother had been taken out of her life.

Now, after three years of unwearying effort, there was still no shadow
to mar her happiness, or temper her enthusiasm. On the contrary, there
was much to stimulate both. In that brief period she had succeeded
almost beyond her dreams. Was she not already the trusted, confidential
secretary to the ruling power in the great offices of the Skandinavia
Corporation? Had she not been taken out of the ranks of the many capable
stenographers, and been given a private office, a doubled salary, and
work to do which left her wide scope for the play of those gifts with
which she was so liberally endowed? Yes. All these things had been
showered upon her in three years. She was a figure of authority in the
great establishment. And furthermore, the man she served--this man,
Elas Peterman--had hinted, and even definitely talked of, further rapid
promotion.

She had worked hard for it all. Oh, yes. She had worked morning, noon,
and night. When other girls had been content to study fashions and
styles, and chatter "beaus" and husbands, she had given herself up to
the study of the wood-pulp trade, and the world's market of the material
she was interested in. She had saturated herself with the whole scheme,
and purpose, and methods of her employers, till, as Peterman himself had
once told her in admiration at her grasp of the business, she knew as
much of the trade as he did himself. And even after that her mirror,
that oracle of a woman's life, failed to yield her the real truth it is
always ready to tell to its devotees.

The pre-occupation suddenly passed out of the girl's eyes. She stirred.
Then she stood up and collected a number of papers into a small leather
attache case. A moment later she pressed the bell push on the desk.

Her summons was promptly answered by a slim figured girl, with fair
hair, and "jumpered" in the latest style.

"I shall be away a while. See to the 'phone, Miss Webster," Nancy said,
in a tone of quiet but definite authority. "I shall