She was fast becoming used to him, and her first feeling of intimidation was passing away.
"Um!" grunted Ryder, "you're a curious girl; upon my word you interest me!" He took the mass of papers lying at his elbow and pushed them over to her.

"Here," he said, "I want you to make as clever a book out of this chaos as you did out of your own imagination." Shirley turned the papers over carelessly.
"So you think your life is a good example to follow ?" she asked with a tinge of irony.
"Isn't it ?" he demanded.
The girl looked him square in the face.
"Suppose," she said, "we all wanted to follow it, suppose we all wanted to be the richest, the most powerful personage in the world ?" "Well--what then ?" he demanded.
"I think it would postpone the era of the Brotherhood of man indefinitely, don't you ?" "I never thought of it from that point of view," admitted the billionaire.

"Really," he added, "you're an extraordinary girl.
Why, you can't be more than twenty--or so." "I'm twenty-four--or so," smiled Shirley.
Ryder's face expanded in a broad smile.

He admired this girl's pluck and ready wit.

He grew more amiable and tried to gain her confidence.