rouble at all! She's
got that honest look that's convincing. And she can tell a story that
beats the Arabian Nights! Ames has given me a week to explain, or make
good his investment. By that time we'll have the Leveridges sold for
twice his investment, and we'll just pay him off and remove him.
Meantime, you go over to the bank in the morning and put up the best
line of talk you're capable of. I've got sixteen hundred dollars to
give 'em on that note; and that'll secure more time, until the sales
of stock are enough to pay it all up. Perhaps Uncle Ted will advance
me enough to take up the note when he hears about La Libertad. And,
say, you see brother James, and shake the club over him until he
disgorges that check he got from Miss Leveridge. You can hand him a
scare that he won't get over. By George, old man! things have taken a
great turn, eh? Why, I can just see Simiti stock sales humping these
next few months. Oh, Miss Honeywell," calling to his cashier, "bring
me five dollars, please, and charge it to Molino--I mean, to Simiti.
Make a new account for that now." Then, again addressing Cass: "Come
with me to the football game this afternoon. We can discuss plans
there as well as here. Gee whiz, but I feel great!"

CHAPTER 6

Carmen's rapid transition from the eternal solitudes of Guamoco to the
whirring activities of New York was like a plunge into the maelstrom,
and left her groping blindly in the effort to adapt herself to the
changed order. There was little in her former mode of existence that
could be transferred to her new environment, and she felt that she was
starting life like a new-born babe. For days, even weeks, she moved
about dreamily, absorbed, ceaselessly striving to orient herself and
to accept easily and naturally the marvels, the sudden accession of
material aids, and the wonders of this modern, complex civilization,
so common to her associates, but scarcely even dreamed of by her in
her former home, despite the preparation which Jose had tried to give
her. The Elwin school was small, its student-body seldom numbering
more than fifty, and in it Carmen found herself hedged about by
restrictions which in a way were beneficial, in that they narrowed her
environment and afforded her time for her slow adjustment to it.

But if these restrictions aided her, they also rendered the length of
her stay in the school almost calculable. Little by little the girl
saw the forces developing which she kn