.

"I want you to come over to my hotel and have a little talk with me," he
said. "Gouger has interested me in you immensely. I believe, as he says,
that you have the making of a distinguished author, and I want to
arrange a plan by which you can carry out his scheme."

Mr. Roseleaf stared doubtfully at his companion.

"What scheme?" he said, briefly.

"Why, of imparting to you that knowledge of the world which will enable
you to draw truthful portraits. You have the art, he says, the talent,
the capacity--whatever you choose to call it. All you lack is
experience. Given that, you would make a reputation second to none. What
can be plainer than that you should acquire the thing you need without
delay?"

"The 'thing I need'?" repeated Roseleaf, dolefully.

Mr. Weil laughed, delightfully.

"Yes!" he explained. "What you need is a friend able to interest you, to
begin with. Pardon me if I say I may be described by that phrase. Come
to my hotel a little while and let us talk it over."

It was not an opportunity to be refused, in Roseleaf's depressed
condition, and the two men walked together to the Hoffman House, where
Mr. Weil at that time made his home.

CHAPTER II.

"WAS MY STORY TOO BOLD?"

"Well, Millie, your letter has come," said Mr. Wilton Fern, as he
entered the parlor of his pleasant residence, situated about twenty
miles from the limits of New York City. "Open it as quick as you can,
and learn your fate."

His daughter started nervously from her seat near the window, where she
had been spending the previous hour in speculations regarding the very
missive that was now placed in her hands. She was a handsome girl,
neither blonde nor brunette, with eyes of hazel gray and hair of that
color that moderns call Titian red. She took the envelope that her
father gave her, and though she wanted intensely to know the contents
she hesitated to open it.

"Read it, Millie," smiled Mr. Fern. "Let us learn whether we have an
authoress in our house who is destined to become famous."

But this remark made Miss Millicent less willing than before to open the
letter in her father's presence. She slowly left the room without
answering and did not break the seal of her communication till she was
in the seclusion of her chamber.

And it was quite a while, even then, before she summoned the necessary
courage. Some days previous she had sent a MSS. to the great publishing
house of Cutt & Slashem. The writing ha