ignorance, but the untaintedness of a
mind that goes through the world selecting the best, as the bee takes
honey and leaves the rest. There's no subject, so far as I can see, on
which she is afraid to think; but I can not imagine that any subject
would leave a deposit of mire in her mind."

"Gee whizz!" scoffed Dick. "How fluent your year of journalism has made
you! What a great thing it is to be a serious-minded young man with
eye-glasses, engaged, while yet in youth, in molding public opinion
through the mighty agent of the press! And Madeline is another of the
same kind."

"I wish I were of her kind," said Ellery stiffly. "You may poke fun at
me as much as you like, Dick, but it's beneath you to jeer at her."

"You old duffer, aren't you two the best friends I have in the world? I
like the clear and frosty mountain peaks."

"How did you find out about Barry?" Ellery asked abruptly.

"I do not have to tell you any more than Madeline." Seeing the grim look
on Norris' face, Dick went on, "Let's go in and to bed. We seem to rub
each other the wrong way to-night. If we don't separate soon we shall be
having a French duel."

CHAPTER XII

AN ENGAGEMENT

The gates of the delectable world, it seemed to Lena, opened very
slowly, and the mild fragrance and warmth that dribbled out to her
through their narrow crack intensified her outer dreariness. Once in a
while Mrs. Lenox or Miss Elton did her some little kindness.
Occasionally Mr. Percival came to see her, but her shame of her mother
and her home made these visits a doubtful pleasure. The sordid monotony
of her work oppressed her every morning and depressed her every night.
The little money that she earned fell like a snow-flake into the yawning
furnace of her desires. Bitter is the fate of her to whom the goods of
this world are the final good, and to whom those goods are denied.

There came a night when a certain great lady gave a dance, and Lena was
deputed by the feminine head of the staff of the _Star_ to report these
doings of society. At first the chance looked to her delightful. She was
to have a peep into the world of charm which was her dream and her
ambition. She walked through the wide empty rooms with their soft lights
and masses of flowers. She surveyed the dining-room, a wilderness of
candles, orchids and maiden-hairs. She felt her feet sink luxuriously
into the rugs, oh, so different from the threadbare ingrain carpet at
home! She peeped