rd to one all too brief succession of days of delight. Jeff, who
had been honored by his fellows in the world which was theirs. Jeff,
the leader in the great industry which absorbed them all. Jeff, the
man by his very temperament marked out for a worldly success only
bounded by the limitations of his personal ambitions. She had been so
proud of him. She had been so thankful to be allowed to share in his
triumphs. She had shared in them, too--up till that meeting with
Elvine van Blooren at the reception. After that--ah, well, there had
been very little after for Nan.

And the man himself. Four days had sufficed to reduce Jeff's feelings
to a condition of love-sickness such as is best associated with extreme
youth. Furthermore its hold upon him was deeper, more lasting by
reason of the innate strength of his character.

As for Elvine van Blooren it would be less easy to say. Her beauty was
of a darkly reticent order. Hers was the face, the eyes, the manner
yielding up few secrets. She rarely imparted confidence even to her
mother. And a woman who denies her mother rarely yields confidence to
any other human creature.

Perhaps in her case, however, she had good reason. Mrs. John D.
Carruthers, who possessed a simple erudite professor for a husband, a
man who possessed no worldly ambitions of any sort, and who readily
accepted his pension from the trustees of St. Bude's College at the
earliest date, so that he might devote all his riper years to the
prosecution of his passion for classical research, was a painful
example of worldliness, and a woman who regarded position and wealth
before all things. There was little enough sympathy between mother and
daughter. Mrs. John D. Carruthers only saw in Elvine's unusual beauty
an asset in her schemes of advancement. While Elvine displayed a cold
disregard for the older woman's efforts, and went her own way.

Elvine was strong, even as Jeffrey Masters was strong. But while the
man's strength lay in the single purpose of achievement, Elvine looked
for the ease and luxury which life could legitimately afford her.
Elvine and her mother possessed far too much in common ever to have
sympathy for one another.

It was this very attitude which inspired an acrimonious half hour in
the somewhat pretentious parlor on Maple Avenue just before Jeff was to
pay his farewell call at the close of the Cattle Week.

Elvine was occupied with a small note-book on the| pages of wh