. You just stay in your place, please, and leave
matters to me."

"Do you mean to tell me that I need not meet the man?" asked Mr.
Seabright eagerly.

"Yes!" replied Mrs. Seabright.

He leaped out of his chair and waltzed across the room, kissed his wife
and darted through the door.

"Fool!" she muttered between her teeth.

Mrs. Arabelle Seabright in her room in the Domain Hotel was now awaiting
the arrival of a newspaper reporter, the next victim to be bent to her
will. It had been on her programme to have her daughter Eunice and her
husband present during a part of the interview with the reporter, but
as they were not entering enthusiastically into her plans she was rather
glad that they had declined to be present.

It was not long before a Mr. Gilman, reporter for the "Daily Columbian,"
was ushered into Mrs. Seabright's room.

"Let us understand each other at the outset, if possible," said Mrs.
Seabright, with a smile, directing a kindly gaze in the direction of the
young man. Mr. Gilman bowed deferentially, but said nothing.

"I am ambitious." said Mrs. Seabright.

"Ambitious people are the ones that carry the world forward," ventured
the young man modestly.

"I have an unbounded ambition,--an ambition to live in history as long
as a record of human affairs is kept. Oh! I hate death!" said Mrs.
Seabright with a shudder, stamping a foot upon the floor for emphasis.
"I have money with which to further my ambitions. I am aware of the
traditions of your paper, the 'Columbian.' I shall not ask you to
violate them. But if you will put your heart in your labor and be an
incessant worker in my interest, your ambitions will be gratified. A
fair exchange is no robbery. You put me on the way to attain my ends and
I shall do the like for you. Is it a bargain?"

"Whatever I may be able to do consistently, I shall certainly do, and
shall be duly appreciative of whatever may result in my favor in
consequence of work worthily done," said the young man with so much
fervor that Mrs. Seabright knew that she was well fortified in that
direction.

Bit by bit the Almaville public was educated as to the Seabrights. They
were descendants of sires that took a prominent part in the affairs of
the Colonies during and succeeding the period of the American
Revolution. Mr. Seabright inherited a large fortune which a keen
business sense had enabled him to increase very materially. He had now
moved to Almaville to found one of the