d his friends will, I think, guard their tongues in future, at
least in my hearing. Dr. Bulling is a man of vile mind and of unclean
life. He should not be allowed to appear with decent people. I have
written to forbid him ever approaching you in public. You will know how
to treat him if he attempts it. This will be a most disgusting business
to you. I hate to make you suffer, but it had to be done, and by no one
but me. Would I could bear it all for you, my darling. The patronage of
these people, I mean Dr. Bulling's set, cannot, surely, be necessary to
your success. Your great voice needs not their patronage; if so, failure
would be better. When I am fit for your presence I shall come to you.
Good-bye. It is hard not to see you. Ever yours,

"Barney."

Alas! for her dreams. How rudely they were dispelled! Alas! for her
castle in Spain. Already it was tottering to ruin, and by Barney's hand.
She read the note hurriedly again.

"He wants me to break with Dr. Bulling." She recalled a sentence in the
doctor's letter. "Let no one or nothing keep you from accepting this
invitation." "He's afraid Barney will keep me back. Nonsense! How stupid
of Barney! He is so terribly particular! He doesn't understand these
things. There has been a horrid row of some kind and now he asks me to
cut Dr. Bulling!" She glanced at Barney's letter. "Well, he doesn't ask
me, but it's all the same--'you will know how to treat him.' He's
too proud to ask me, but he expects me to. It would be sheer madness!
Wouldn't the Duff Charrington's and Evelyn Redd be delighted! It is
preposterous! I must go! I shall go!"

Rarely did Iola allow herself the luxury of a downright burst of
passion. With her, it was hardly ever worth while to be seriously angry.
It was so much easier to avoid straight issues. But to-day there was
no avoiding. She surprised herself with a storm of indignant rage so
heart-shaking that after it had passed she was thankful she had been
alone.

"What's the matter with me?" she asked herself. She did not know that
the whole volume of her ambition, which had absorbed so great a part
of her life, had come, in all its might, against the massive rock of
Barney's will. He would never yield, she knew well. "What shall I do?"
she cried aloud, beginning to pace the room. "Margaret will tell me. No,
she would be sure to side with Barney. She would think it was wicked to
go on Sunday, anyway, and, besides, she has Barney's rigid notions a