various opportunities of making money, his folly or his madness
would be brought home to him sooner or later by strong necessity,
and that he would then either arrive at a sane every-day realisation
of "things as they are"--or else be put away in an asylum and
quietly forgotten. This being the sagacious opinion of those who
knew him best, there was a considerable flutter in such limited
American circles as call themselves "upper" when the wealthiest
young woman in the States, Morgana Royal, suddenly elected to know
him and to bring him into prominent notice at her parties as "the
most wonderful genius of the time"--"a man whose scientific
discoveries might change the very face of the globe"--and other
fantastically exaggerated descriptions of her own which he himself
strongly repudiated and resented. Gossip ran amok concerning the
two, and it was generally agreed that if the "madman" of science
were to become the husband of a woman multi-millionaire, he would
not have to be considered so mad after all! But the expected romance
did not materialise,--there came apparently a gradual "cooling off"
in the sentiments of both parties concerned,--and though Roger
Seaton was still occasionally seen with Morgana in her automobile,
in her opera-box, or at her receptions, his appearances were fewer,
and other men, in fact many other men, were more openly encouraged
and flattered,--Morgana herself showing as much indifference towards
him as she had at first shown interest. When, therefore, he suddenly
left the social scene of action, his acquaintances surmised that he
had got an abrupt dismissal, or as they more brusquely expressed it-
-"the game's up"!

"He's lost his chance!" they said, shaking their heads forlornly--
"And he's poorer than Job! He'll be selling newspapers in the cars
for a living by and by!"