attention. He stooped and picked it up. It was a letter. It was in
Bagley's handwriting and had evidently been dropped by the man to
whom the secretary had given it to post. But what interested
Jefferson more than anything else was that it was addressed to
Miss Kate Roberts. Under ordinary circumstances, a king's ransom
would not have tempted the young man to read a letter addressed to
another, but he was convinced that his father's secretary was an
adventurer and if he were carrying on an intrigue in this manner
it could have only one meaning. It was his duty to unveil a rascal
who was using the Ryder roof and name to further his own ends and
victimize a girl who, although sophisticated enough to know
better, was too silly to realize the risk she ran at the hands of
an unscrupulous man. Hesitating no longer, Jefferson tore open the
envelope and read:

My dearest wife that is to be:

I have arranged everything. Next Wednesday--just a week
from to-day--we will go to the house of a discreet friend
of mine where a minister will marry us; then we will go to
City Hall and get through the legal part of it.
Afterwards, we can catch the four o'clock train for
Buffalo. Meet me in the ladies' room at the Holland House
Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. I will come there with a
closed cab.
Your devoted
FITZ.

"Phew!" Jefferson whistled. A close shave this for Senator
Roberts, he thought. His first impulse was to go upstairs again to
his mother and put the matter in her hands. She would immediately
inform his father, who would make short work of Mr. Bagley. But,
thought Jefferson, why should he spoil a good thing? He could
afford to wait a day or two. There was no hurry. He could allow
Bagley to think all was going swimmingly and then uncover the plot
at the eleventh hour. He would even let this letter go to Kate,
there was no difficulty in procuring another envelope and
imitating the handwriting--and when Bagley was just preparing to
go to the rendezvous he would spring the trap. Such a cad deserved
no mercy. The scandal would be a knock-out blow, his father would
discharge him on the spot and that would be the last they would
see of the aristocratic English secretary. Jefferson put the
letter in his pocket and left the house rejoicing.

While the foregoing incidents were happening John Burkett Ryder
was secluded i