m since he walked out of her front door, was by no means oblivious to
Jack's social and business successes. "I hear Jack was at Mrs. Portman's
last night," she said to her husband the morning after one of the
ex-Clearing House Magnate's great receptions. "They say he goes
everywhere, and that Mr. Grayson has adopted him and is going to leave
him all his money," to which Breen had grunted back that Jack was
welcome to the Portmans and the Portmans to Jack, and that if old
Grayson had any money, which he very much doubted, he'd better hoist
it overboard than give it to that rattlebrain. Mrs. Breen heaved a deep
sigh. Neither she nor Breen had been invited to the Portmans', nor
had Corinne (the Scribe has often wondered whether the second scoop
in Mukton was the cause)--and yet Ruth MacFarlane, and Jack and Miss
Felicia Grayson, and a lot more out-of-town people--so that insufferable
Mrs. Bennett had told her--had come long distances to be present, the
insufferable adding significantly that "Miss MacFarlane looked too
lovely and was by all odds the prettiest girl in the room, and as for
young Breen, really she could have fallen in love with him herself!"

Jack tucked his uncle's letter in his pocket, skipped over to read it to
Ruth and MacFarlane, in explanation of his enforced absence for the
day, and kept on his way to the station. The missive referred to the
Morfordsburg contract, of course, and was evidently an attempt to gain
information regarding the proposed work, Arthur Breen & Co. being the
financial agents of many similar properties.

"I will take care of him, sir," Jack had said as he left his Chief. "My
uncle, no doubt, means all right, and it is just as well to hear what
he says--besides he has been good enough to write to me, and of course I
must go, but I shall not commit myself one way or the other--" and with
a whispered word in Ruth's ear, a kiss and a laugh, he left the house.

As he turned down the short street leading to the station, he caught
sight of Garry forging ahead on his way to the train. That rising young
architect, chairman of the Building Committee of the Council, trustee of
church funds, politician and all-round man of the world--most of which
he carried in a sling--seemed in a particularly happy frame of mind
this morning judging from the buoyancy with which he stepped. This had
communicated itself to the gayety of his attire, for he was dressed in a
light-gray check suit, and wore a stra