newspaper. My dream has come true! A hundred thousand dollars are
promised. I shall have as good a news service as any in New York."

Madeleine withdrew her hands but smiled brightly and made him a
pretty speech of congratulation. She knew little of newspapers and
cared less, but there must be something extraordinary about owning
one to excite a man like Langdon Masters. She had never seen him
excited before.

"Won't it mean a great deal harder work?"

"Oh, work! I thrive on work. I've never had enough. Come and sit
down. Let me talk to you. Let me be egotistical and talk about
myself. Let me tell you all my pent-up ambitions and hopes and
desires--you wonderful little Egeria!"

And he poured himself out to her as he had never unbosomed himself
before. He stayed on to dinner--she had no engagement--and left her
only for the office. He had evidently forgotten the earlier episode,
and he swept it from her own mind. That mind, subtle, feminine,
yielding, melted into his. She shared those ambitions and hopes and
desires. His brilliant and useful future was as real and imperative
to her as to himself. It was a new, a wonderful, a thrilling
experience. When she went to bed, smiling and happy, she slammed a
little door in her mind and shot the bolt. A terrible fear had shaken
her three hours before, but she refused to recall it. Once more the
present sufficed.