ation to be derived from
conformity counted little with Austen Vane. Money was a medium only--not
an end. He was in the saddle all day, with nothing but the horizon to
limit him; he loved his father, and did not doubt his father's love for
him, and he loved Euphrasia. He could support himself, but he must see
life. The succeeding years brought letters and quaint, useless presents
to both the occupants of the lonely house,--Navajo blankets and Indian
jeweler and basket-work,--and Austen little knew how carefully these
were packed away and surreptitiously gazed at from time to time. But to
Hilary the Western career was a disgrace, and such meagre reports of
it as came from other sources than Austen tended only to confirm him in
this opinion.

It was commonly said of Mr. Paul Pardriff that not a newspaper fell from
the press that he did not have a knowledge of its contents. Certain
it was that Mr. Pardriff made a specialty of many kinds of knowledge,
political and otherwise, and, the information he could give--if he
chose--about State and national affairs was of a recondite and cynical
nature that made one wish to forget about the American flag. Mr.
Pardriff was under forty, and with these gifts many innocent citizens of
Ripton naturally wondered why the columns of his newspaper, the Ripton
Record, did not more closely resemble the spiciness of his talk in the
office of Gales' Hotel. The columns contained, instead, such efforts as
essays on a national flower and the abnormal size of the hats of certain
great men, notably Andrew Jackson; yes, and the gold standard; and in
times of political stress they were devoted to a somewhat fulsome praise
of regular and orthodox Republican candidates,--and praise of any one
was not in character with the editor. Ill-natured people said that the
matter in his paper might possibly be accounted for by the gratitude
of the candidates, and the fact that Mr. Pardriff and his wife and his
maid-servant and his hired man travelled on pink mileage books, which
could only be had for love--not money. On the other hand, reputable
witnesses had had it often from Mr. Pardriff that he was a reformer, and
not at all in sympathy with certain practices which undoubtedly existed.

Some years before--to be exact, the year Austen Vane left the law
school--Mr. Pardriff had proposed to exchange the Ripton Record with
the editor of the Pepper County Plainsman in afar Western State. The
exchange was effected, a