no longer there to spy upon their actions these clandestine interviews had been comparatively easy.  Shirley brought to bear all the arguments she could think of to convince Jefferson of the hopelessness of their engagement.  She insisted that she could never be his wife; circumstances over which they had no control made that dream impossible.  It were better, she said, to part now rather than incur the risk of being unhappy later.  But Jefferson refused to be convinced.  He argued and pleaded and he even swore—­strange, desperate words that Shirley had never heard before and which alarmed her not a little—­and the discussion ended usually by a kiss which put Shirley completely hors de combat.

Meantime, John Ryder had not ceased worrying about his son.  The removal of Kate Roberts as a factor in his future had not eliminated the danger of Jefferson taking the bit between his teeth one day and contracting a secret marriage with the daughter of his enemy, and when he thought of the mere possibility of such a thing happening he stormed and raved until his wife, accustomed as she was to his choleric outbursts, was thoroughly frightened.  For some time after Bagley’s departure, father and son got along together fairly amicably, but Ryder, Sr. was quick to see that Jefferson had something on his mind which was worrying him, and he rightly attributed it to his infatuation for Miss Rossmore.  He was convinced that his son knew where the judge’s daughter was, although his own efforts to discover her whereabouts had been unsuccessful.  Sergeant Ellison had confessed absolute failure; Miss Rossmore, he reported, had disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed her, and further search was futile.  Knowing well his son’s impulsive, headstrong disposition, Ryder, Sr. believed him quite capable of marrying the girl secretly any time.  The only thing that John Ryder did not know was that Shirley Rossmore was not the kind of a girl to allow any man to inveigle her into a secret marriage.  The Colossus, who judged the world’s morals by his own, was not of course aware of this, and he worried night and day thinking what he could do to prevent his son from marrying the daughter of the man he had wronged.

The more he pondered over it, the more he regretted that there was not some other girl with whom Jefferson could fall in love and marry.  He need not seek a rich girl—­there was certainly enough money in the Ryder family to provide for both.  He wished they knew a girl, for example, as attractive and clever as Miss Green.  Ah! he thought, there was a girl who would make a man of Jefferson—­ brainy, ambitious, active!  And the more he thought of it the more the idea grew on him that Miss Green would be an ideal daughter-in-law, and at the same time snatch his son from the clutches of the Rossmore woman.