Ryder was in a quandary.  He had no wish to quarrel with his useful Washington ally; he recognized the reasonableness of his complaint.  Yet what could he do?  Much as he himself desired the marriage, his son was obstinate and showed little inclination to settle down.  He even hinted at attractions in another quarter.  He did not tell the Senator of his recent interview with his son when the latter made it very plain that the marriage could never take place.  Ryder, Sr., had his own reasons for wishing to temporize.  It was quite possible that Jefferson might change his mind and abandon his idea of going abroad and he suggested to the Senator that perhaps if he, the Senator, made the engagement public through the newspapers it might have the salutary effect of forcing his son’s hand.

So a few mornings later there appeared among the society notes in several of the New York papers this paragraph: 

“The engagement is announced of Miss Katherine Roberts, only daughter of senator Roberts of Wisconsin, to Jefferson Ryder, son of Mr. John Burkett Ryder.”

Two persons in New York happened to see the item about the same time and both were equally interested, although it affected them in a different manner.  One was Shirley Rossmore, who had chanced to pick up the newspaper at the breakfast table in her boarding house.

“So soon?” she murmured to herself.  Well, why not?  She could not blame Jefferson.  He had often spoken to her of this match arranged by his father and they had laughed over it as a typical marriage of convenience modelled after the Continental pattern.  Jefferson, she knew, had never cared for the girl nor taken the affair seriously.  Some powerful influences must have been at work to make him surrender so easily.  Here again she recognized the masterly hand of Ryder, Sr., and more than ever she was eager to meet this extraordinary man and measure her strength with his.  Her mind, indeed, was too full of her father’s troubles to grieve over her own however much she might have been inclined to do so under other circumstances, and all that day she did her best to banish the paragraph from her thoughts.  More than a week had passed since she left Massapequa and what with corresponding with financiers, calling on editors and publishers, every moment of her time had been kept busy.  She had found a quiet and reasonable priced boarding house off Washington Square and here Stott had called several times to see her.  Her correspondence with Mr. Ryder had now reached a phase when it was impossible to invent any further excuses for delaying the interview asked for.  As she had foreseen, a day or two after her arrival in town she had received a note from Mrs. Ryder asking her to do her the honour to call and see her, and Shirley, after waiting another two days, had replied making an appointment for the following day at three o’clock.  This was the same day on which the paragraph concerning the Ryder-Roberts engagement appeared in the society chronicles of the metropolis.