h him.
We're friends; and we're going to remain friends. Just that. Del's a
good sort," she added with a hint of pleading the cause of a
misunderstood person. "He'd give me my divorce in a minute; even though
he still cares--in his way. But there's his mother. She's a sort of
latter-day saint; one of those rare people that you respect and love in
equal parts; the only other one I know is Cousin Willis Enderby. She's
an invalid, hopeless, and a Roman Catholic, and for me to divorce Del
would poison the rest of her life. So I won't. I can't."

"She won't live forever," muttered Banneker.

"No. Not long, perhaps." There was pain and resolution in Io's eyes as
they were lifted to meet his again. "There's another reason. I can't
tell even you, Ban. The secret isn't mine.... I'm sorry."

"Haven't you any work to do to-day?" she asked after a pause, with a
successful effect of lightness.

He roused himself, settled the check, and took her to her car, parked
near by.

"Where do you go now?" he asked.

"Back to the country."

"When shall I see you again?"

"I wonder," said Io.

CHAPTER IV

Panem et Circenses; bread and the Big Show. The diagnosis of the
satyr-like mathematician had been accurate. That same method whereby the
tyrants of Rome had sought to beguile the restless and unthinking
multitude, Banneker adopted to capture and lead the sensation-avid
metropolitan public through his newspaper. As a facture, a creation made
to the mind of the creator, The Patriot was Banneker's own. True,
Marrineal reserved full control. But Marrineal, after a few months spent
in anxious observation of his editor's headlong and revolutionary
method, had taken the sales reports for his determinative guide and
decided to give the new man full sway.

Circulation had gone up as water rises in a tube under irresistible
pressure from beneath. Nothing like it had ever been known in local
journalism. Barring some set-back, within four years of the time when
Banneker's introductory editorial appeared, the paper would have
eclipsed all former records. In less than two years it had climbed to
third place, and already Banneker's salary, under the percentage
agreement, was, in the words of the alliterative Gardner, whose article
describing The House With Three Eyes and its owner had gone forth on the
wings of a far-spreading syndicate, "a stupendous stipend."

Banneker's editorials pervaded and gave the keynote. With sublime
self-