few mornings later there appeared among the society notes in
several of the New York papers this paragraph:

"The engagement is announced of Miss Katherine Roberts,
only daughter of senator Roberts of Wisconsin, to
Jefferson Ryder, son of Mr. John Burkett Ryder."

Two persons in New York happened to see the item about the same
time and both were equally interested, although it affected them
in a different manner. One was Shirley Rossmore, who had chanced
to pick up the newspaper at the breakfast table in her boarding
house.

"So soon?" she murmured to herself. Well, why not? She could not
blame Jefferson. He had often spoken to her of this match arranged
by his father and they had laughed over it as a typical marriage
of convenience modelled after the Continental pattern. Jefferson,
she knew, had never cared for the girl nor taken the affair
seriously. Some powerful influences must have been at work to make
him surrender so easily. Here again she recognized the masterly
hand of Ryder, Sr., and more than ever she was eager to meet this
extraordinary man and measure her strength with his. Her mind,
indeed, was too full of her father's troubles to grieve over her
own however much she might have been inclined to do so under other
circumstances, and all that day she did her best to banish the
paragraph from her thoughts. More than a week had passed since she
left Massapequa and what with corresponding with financiers,
calling on editors and publishers, every moment of her time had
been kept busy. She had found a quiet and reasonable priced
boarding house off Washington Square and here Stott had called
several times to see her. Her correspondence with Mr. Ryder had
now reached a phase when it was impossible to invent any further
excuses for delaying the interview asked for. As she had foreseen,
a day or two after her arrival in town she had received a note
from Mrs. Ryder asking her to do her the honour to call and see
her, and Shirley, after waiting another two days, had replied
making an appointment for the following day at three o'clock. This
was the same day on which the paragraph concerning the Ryder-Roberts
engagement appeared in the society chronicles of the metropolis.

Directly after the meagre meal which in New York boarding houses
is dignified by the name of luncheon, Shirley proceeded to get
ready for this portentous visit to the Ryder mansion. She was
anxious to make a favourable impression on