"I say there is, and if the girl's mother was alive, or you 'tending out at home as sharp as you ought to, your family would have had a stir-up long ago. If you ain't quite ready for a son-in-law, and don't want that young man, you'd better grab in and issue a family bulletin to that effect." "Damn such foolishness! I don't believe it," stormed Barrett, pulling his chair back to the desk; "but if you knew it, why didn't you say something before?" "Oh, I'm no gossip," returned Britt, serenely. "I've got something to do besides watch courtin' scrapes. But I don't have to watch this one in _your_ family. I know it's on." Barrett hooked his glasses on his nose with an angry gesture, and began to fuss with the papers on his desk. But in spite of his professed scepticism and his suspicion of Pulaski Britt's ingenuousness, it was plain that his mind was not on the papers. He whirled away suddenly and faced Britt. That gentleman was pulling packets of other papers from his pocket. "Look here, Britt, about this lying scandal that seems to be snaking around, seeing that it has come to your ears, I--" "What I'm here for is to go over these drivin' tolls so that they can be passed on to the book-keepers," announced Mr. Britt, with a fine and brisk business air. He had shot his shaft of gossip, had "jumped" his man, and the affair of John Barrett's daughter had no further interest for him. "You go ahead and run your family affairs to suit yourself. As to these things you are runnin' with me, let's get at 'em." In this manner, unwittingly, did Pulaski D. Britt light the fuse that connected with his own magazine; in this fashion, too, did he turn his back upon it. CHAPTER II THE HEIRESS OF "OAKLANDS" "Pete Lebree had money and land, Paul of Olamon had none, Only his peavy and driving pole, his birch canoe and his gun. But to Paul Nicola, lithe and tall, son of a Tarratine, Had gone the heart of the governor's child, Molly the island's queen." --_Old Town Ballads._ The coachman usually drove into town from the "Oaklands" to bring John Barrett home from his office, for Barrett liked the spirited rush of his blooded horses. But when his daughter occasionally anticipated the coachman, he resigned himself to a ride in her phaeton with only a sleepy pony to draw them. Once more absorbed in his affairs, after the departure of Pulaski Britt, Barrett had forgotten the unpleasant morsel of gossip that Britt had brought to spice his interview.