ut some social item, or to report a new subscriber, his
self-esteem meanwhile putting forth all manner of new shoots and
bursting into exotic bloom under the warmth of her approval.

Miss Gusty, on her part, was acquiring a new interest in her
surroundings. In addition to the subtle flattery of being consulted, she
was the recipient of daily offerings of books, and music, and drugstore
candy, and sometimes a handful of flowers, carefully concealed in a
newspaper to escape the vigilant eye of Jimmy Fallows.

On several occasions she returned Mr. Opp's calls, picking her way
daintily across the road, and peeping in at the window to make sure he
was there.

It was at such times that the staff of "The Opp Eagle" misconducted
itself. It objected to a young woman in the press-room; it disapproved
of the said person sitting at the deal table in confidential
conversation with the editor; it saw no humor in her dipping the pencils
into the ink-well, and scrawling names on the new office stationery; and
when the point was reached that she moved about the office, asking
absurd questions and handling the type, the staff could no longer endure
it, but hastened forth to forget its annoyance in the pursuit of
business.

Moreover, the conduct of the chief, as Nick was pleased to call Mr. Opp,
was becoming more and more peculiar. He would arrive in the morning, his
pockets bristling with papers, and his mind with projects. He would
attack the work of the day with ferocious intensity, then in the midst
of it, without warning, he would lapse into an apparent trance, his
hands in his pockets, his eyes on the ceiling, and such a smile on his
face as one usually reserves for a camera.

Nick did not know that it was the song of the siren that was calling Mr.
Opp, who, instead of lashing himself to the mast and steering for the
open sea, was letting his little craft drift perilously near the rocky
coast.

No feature of the proceedings was lost upon Mrs. Gusty. She applied the
same method to her daughter that she did to her vines, tying her firmly
to the wall of her own ability, and prescribing the direction and length
to which she should grow. The situation would need pruning later, but
for the present she studied conditions and bided her time.

Meanwhile the "Eagle" was circling more widely in its flight. Mr. Opp's
persistent and eloquent articles pertaining to the great oil wealth of
the region had been reinforced by a favorable repo