Somehow the old struggle began with renewed energy in Mary's heart, the puritanical part saying: "Forget you ever thought twice of this man"; and the dreamer part urging: "You have earned the right to love him. She has not. Just be fair--merely fair. You have the right; don't let your opportunity slip by." [Illustration: "It was with a charming timidity that she tip-toed into the office"] "Why can't I tell you? I have no one else to whom I can tell things--and I'm so everlastingly tired. Goat tending and living off dried buffalo meat never fagged me like trying to dance with Trudy and living on truffles and champagne. First you are mentally bewildered and physically fagged, then you become defiant; then you realize that that is no use, you've brought this on your own self--it is quite the common fate of men like myself--and so you keep on with the steady grind; and by and by you find yourself longing to play in your own way with your own sort. The other sort have no use for you so long as you pay their bills; you are hardly missed, if the truth were told. "Well, you must keep on with the grind. And you want your sort of playmates and fun, and it's such decent, upright fun in comparison--oh, pshaw!" He stood up, kicking the edge of the rug with his foot in almost boyish, shamed fashion. "Business isn't quite so good," he began anew in an impersonal, even voice. "Mr. Constantine thinks that the abnormal prosperity is on the wane for keeps--we must prepare for it--but Mr. Constantine has practically retired since you have been away. He's not well. To-morrow morning, if you don't mind, I'll take you over there and we can straighten out some things for him. He is selling the greater share of stock to men from the West. And he's saved out some pretty nice sugar plums to hand over to me. I haven't been asked whether or not I want them." "I'm sorry." "I knew you would be, Miss Iconoclast." "Why do you accept them?" "How can I refuse?" "By saying you are not prepared to be a mental wreck at forty--which you will be if you try such a gigantic scheme with so little preparation. I've an idea that when Mr. Constantine is known to have withdrawn from the business world there will be a change in many things. And when you are known to be alone in the fort--" She paused. "Go on," he demanded, irritably. "Can I never make you understand how much I want your advice, your opinions, your scoldings?" "I think you will have new enemies with whom to deal--enemies you never thought existed. I don't believe you can deal with them because you have always been so cotton-woolled, so to speak, by being Constantine's special project----" "I've done what I've done myself," he interrupted, "and I'm afraid of no one."