own, and for diversion had adopted
a little curly-headed Greek boy, for whom she engaged the services of a
French nurse. She was very temperamental.

Mrs. Scot-Williams had found Virginia Van de Vere some half dozen years
before, languishing in the ill-lighted studio, on the verge of shutting
up shop and going home for want of patronage. It was just that kind of
talented girl that Mrs. Scot-Williams liked to help and encourage. She
established Virginia Van de Vere.

Mrs. Scot-Williams is a philanthropic woman, and enormously wealthy. Her
pet charity is what she calls "the little-business woman." New York is
filled with small industries run by women, in this loft, or that
shop--clever women, too, talented, many of them, and it is to that class
that Mrs. Scot-Williams devotes herself. She takes keen delight in
studying the tricks and secrets of business success. When some young
woman to whom she has lent capital to start a cake and candy shop
complains of dull trade, or a little French corsetier finds her
customers falling off, Mrs. Scot-Williams likes to investigate the
difficulties and suggest remedies--more advertising, a better location,
a new superintendent in the workshop, one thing or another--perhaps even
a little more capital, which, if she lends and loses it, she simply puts
down under the head of charity in her distribution of expenses.

I had occurred to Mrs. Scot-Williams as a possible means for improving
conditions at Van de Vere's. Miss Van de Vere possessed so highly a
developed artistic temperament that her manner sometimes antagonized.
Her assistant's duty, therefore, would be that of a cleverly constructed
fly, concealing beneath tact and pretty manners ("and pretty gowns, my
dear," added Mrs. Scot-Williams) a hook to catch reluctant customers.

I was fitted for such a position. I had been used as bait before, for
other kind of fish. I purchased my fine feathers. Within a fortnight
after my interview with Mrs. Scot-Williams, I was cast upon the waters.

There was no jealousy between Virginia Van de Vere and me. Beauty to her
was something pulsing and alive. If any one suggested marring it, it
tortured her. I was not so sensitive. The result was, I took charge of
the customers who mentioned leatherette dens and Moorish libraries, and
Virginia's genius was spared injury. She loved me for it. We worked
beautifully together.

Van de Vere's was my great chance. It was indeed my pot of gold. I had
alway