Produced by Al Haines Masterman and Son by W. J. DAWSON _Author of "A Prophet in Babylon," etc._ NEW YORK ---- CHICAGO ---- TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, 1909, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street CONTENTS PART ONE ARCHIBOLD MASTERMAN CHAPTER I. THE MASTER-BUILDER II. A DISCUSSION III. THE BIG STRONG BEAST IV. MRS. BUNDY V. THE MAGIC NIGHT VI. YOUNG LOVE VII. ENTER SCALES VIII. THE ACCUSATION IX. THE CONTEST X. THE FAREWELL PART TWO THE AMERICAN MADONNA XI. NEW YORK XII. MR. WILBUR MEREDITH LEGION XIII. ADVENTURES OF AN INCOMPETENT XIV. HE FINDS A FRIEND XV. THE MILLIONAIRE XVI. KOOTENAY XVII. THE NEW LIFE PART THREE FATHER AND SON XVIII. THE AMALGAMATED BRICK CO. XIX. THE FEAR XX. THE RETURN XXI. THE VERDICT XXII. MRS. BUNDY PHILOSOPHISES XXIII. THE LAST HOME XXIV. THE NEW WORLD PART ONE ARCHIBOLD MASTERMAN I THE MASTER-BUILDER Archibold Masterman, tall, heavily-built, muscular, and on the wrong side of fifty, was universally esteemed an excellent specimen of that dubious product of modern commerce, the self-made man. At twenty he was a day-labourer, at thirty a jobbing builder, at forty a contractor in a large way of business. At that point may be dated the beginning of his social efflorescence. It was then that he began to wear broadcloth on week-days, and insisted on a fresh shirt every other day. Hitherto careless of his appearance, he now took a quiet pride in clothes, and discovered the uses of the manicure. A little later he discovered that a man's position in society is judged by the kind of house he lives in, and that it is social wisdom to pay a high rent for a small house in a discreetly "good" locality, rather than a low rent for a much better house in a deteriorated suburb. That was the year in which he purchased Eagle House, a pompous, old-fashioned residence standing in its own grounds in Highbourne Gardens.