Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. [Illustration: MAY IVERSON] MAY IVERSON'S CAREER BY ELIZABETH JORDAN AUTHOR OF "MAY IVERSON--HER BOOK" "MANY KINGDOMS" ETC. HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON TO F. H. B. WITH MEMORIES OF THE WISTFUL ADRIATIC CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. MY FIRST ASSIGNMENT 1 II. THE CRY OF THE PACK 24 III. THE GIRL IN GRAY 43 IV. IN GAY BOHEMIA 68 V. THE CASE OF HELEN BRANDOW 94 VI. THE LAST OF THE MORANS 120 VII. TO THE RESCUE OF MISS MORRIS 140 VIII. MARIA ANNUNCIATA 162 IX. THE REVOLT OF TILDY MEARS 184 X. A MESSAGE FROM MOTHER ELISE 206 XI. "T. B." CONDUCTS A REHEARSAL 228 XII. THE RISE OF THE CURTAIN 256 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS MAY IVERSON _Frontispiece_ "DON'T STAND THERE STARING. I KNOW I'M NOT A BEAUTY," AND SHE CACKLED LIKE AN ANGRY HEN. 12 IT WAS YOUNG "SHEP," THE LAST OF THE MORANS 124 "D'YE KNOW THE WOMAN?" HE SAID 176 MAY IVERSON'S CAREER I MY FIRST ASSIGNMENT The Commencement exercises at St. Catharine's were over, and everybody in the big assembly-hall was looking relieved and grateful. Mabel Muriel Murphy had welcomed our parents and friends to the convent shades in an extemporaneous speech we had overheard her practising for weeks; and the proud face of Mabel Muriel's father, beaming on her as she talked, illumined the front row like an electric globe. Maudie Joyce had read a beautiful essay, full of uplifting thoughts and rare flowers of rhetoric; Mabel Blossom had tried to deliver her address without the manuscript, and had forgotten it at a vital point; Adeline Thurston had recited an original poem; Kittie James had sung a solo; and Janet Trelawney had played the Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody on the piano.