urned from their walk and she told them about the visitor.

"Mr. Ryder's son, Jefferson, was here. We crossed on the same
ship. I introduced him to Judge Stott on the dock."

The judge looked surprised, but he merely said:

"I hope for his sake that he is a different man from his father."

"He is," replied Shirley simply, and nothing more was said.

Two days went by, during which Shirley went on completing the
preparations for her visit to New York. It was arranged that Stott
should escort her to the city. Shortly before they started for the
train a letter arrived for Shirley. Like the first one it had been
forwarded by her publishers. It read as follows:

MISS SHIRLEY GREEN,

_Dear Madam._--I shall be happy to see you at my
residence--Fifth Avenue--any afternoon that you will
mention.
Yours very truly,
JOHN BURKETT RYDER,
per B.

Shirley smiled in triumph as, unseen by her father and mother, she
passed it over to Stott. She at once sat down and wrote this
reply:

MR. JOHN BURKETT RYDER,

_Dear Sir._--I am sorry that I am unable to comply with
your request. I prefer the invitation to call at your
private residence should come from Mrs. Ryder.

Yours, etc.,
SHIRLEY GREEN.

She laughed as she showed this to Stott:

"He'll write me again," she said, "and next time his wife will
sign the letter."

An hour later she left Massapequa for the city.

CHAPTER XI

The Hon. Fitzroy Bagley had every reason to feel satisfied with
himself. His _affaire de coeur_ with the Senator's daughter was
progressing more smoothly than ever, and nothing now seemed likely
to interfere with his carefully prepared plans to capture an
American heiress. The interview with Kate Roberts in the library,
so awkwardly disturbed by Jefferson's unexpected intrusion, had
been followed by other interviews more secret and more successful,
and the plausible secretary had contrived so well to persuade the
girl that he really thought the world of her, and that a brilliant
future awaited her as his wife, that it was not long before he
found her in a mood to refuse him nothing.

Bagley urged immediate marriage; he insinuated that Jefferson had
treated her shamefully and that she owed it to herself to show the
world that there wer