A Rebellious Heroine

n too hard-a

it, and not to

s Labor

him, and his discomfiture was all the more deplorable because it meant little short of the ruin of his life and ambitions. The problem had to be solved or his career was at an end. Harley never could do two things at once. The task he had in hand always absorbed his whole being until he was able to write the word finis on the last page of his manuscript, and until the finis to this elusive book he was now struggling with was written, I knew that he would write no other. His pot-boilers he could do, of course, and so earn a living, but pot-boilers destroy rather than make reputations, and Harley was too young a man to rest upon past achievements; neither had he done such vastly superior work that his fame could withstand much diminution by the continuous production of ephemera. It was therefore in the hope of saving him that I broke faith with him and temporarily stole his heroine. I did not dream of using her at all, as you might think, as a heroine of my own, but rather as an interesting person with ideas as to the duty of heroines-a sort of Past Grand Mistress

w for my own aggrandizement. I planned it solely in the interests of my friend, hoping that I might secure from Miss Andrews some unguarded admission that might operate against her own principles, as Harley and I knew them, and that, that secured, I might induce her to follow meekly his schedule until he could bring his story to a reasonable conclusion. Failing in this, I was going to try and discover what style of man it was she admired most, what might be her ideas o

one brief paragraph I landed myself at the Profile House, where she was spending a week with Mr. and Mrs. Rushton of Brooklyn. This change of location caused me to modify my first idea, to its advantage. I saw, when I thought the matter over, that, on the whole, the interview, as an interview for a newspaper syndicate, was likely to be nipped in the bud, since the moment I declared myself a reporter for a set of newspapers, and stated the object of my call, she would probably dismiss me with the statement that she was not a professional heroine, that her views were of no interest to the public, and that, not having the pleasure of my acquaintance, she must beg to be

myself, it would have been impossible, for Harley would never have stooped to provide himself with a trunk containing fresh linen and evening-dress clothes and patent-leather pumps by a stroke of his

-making subterfuges as the description of doorknobs and chairs; and except for its unholy length, it was not at all lacking in realism. Miss Andrews fascinated me and seemed to find me rather good company, and I found myself suggesting that as the next day was Sunday she take me for a walk. From what I knew of Harley's experience with her, I judged she'd be more likely to go if I asked her to take me instead of offering to take her. It was a subtle distinction, but with some women subtle distinctions are chasms which men must not try to overleap too vainglor

r more of pleasure and health seekers of different creeds worshipping heartily and simply together, as accordantly as though they knew no differences and all men were possessed of one common religion-it was too impr

ringly for a moment

caught my error in time to pass it off-"at Newport?" I finished, with a half gasp at the narrowne

she asked, quickly-so quickly that I alm

newspaper correspondent drew a picture of the scene on

it, was it? And do you waste your valuable time rea

man with a nose to project into the aff

nt day. The vulgar reporter may be ignorant or a boor, and all that is reprehensible in his methods, but he writes about real flesh and blood people; and, what is worse, he generally approximates the truth concerning them in his writing, which is more than can be said of the so-

n a manner which gave me considerable apprehens

she said, quietly. "The

led me, and I q

ve not liv

chaffingly, gazing at me out of the corners of

I answered, "but I am afr

ing her lips. "The fact that you are here on the

us errand. May I ask you what you mean by the expression 'most amusing o

iate that fact. Your question I will answer by asking another: Are you here of your own volition, or has St

ing doubts upon my existence, and placing me in the same category with herself-a mere book creature. To a man who regards himself as being the real thing

than an idea, you do not manife

ly laid

merely asked a question," she said. "I repeat it. Do you or do you not exist? Are you a bit of the really real or a

e talking to her, but in my den in New York writing about her. I may not be a

I am-no, I am not her

, or is this a 'situation' calculated to delight the American girl-with

t Miss Andrews was too much for me, and I heartily wished I was well out of it. "And I

gone there to recu

sely,"

terference with my comfort at Newport," she said, her face flushin

to what you r

low blindly his will, he abuses his power, places me in a false and perilous situation, from which I, a defenceless woman,

med for my act. He must be set right at o

; and he-well, he was mad because I did it, and said he'd like to kill any man

o displeasure in her voice-in fact, she seemed to cheer up wonderfully when I to

he wants you for his heroine; he wants to make you happy, but he wants you to be happy in your own way; and when he thinks he has discovered your way, he works along that line, an

our friend?" she asked, calmly. "Surely you are to

s will be revolting to you, and until he has succeeded in pleasing you to the last page of his book he will never write again. I have done this in the hope of persuading you, at the cost even of some personal discomfort, not to rebel against his gentle leadership

ng pensively out over the mirror-like

n do with me as he pleases in all save one particular. He shall not marry me to a man I d

ask who t

, with a little smile. "But I won't answ

en for my runawa

xpect me to condemn a man for lo

ned into the suggestion of a romance, which I was in duty bound to destroy-but I began to have a glimmering of an idea as to who the man was that M