This summer he was giving himself a well-deserved vacation, and he had come to Europe partly to see Paris and the other art centres about which his fellow students at the Academy raved, but principally--although this he did not acknowledge even to himself--to meet in Paris a young woman in whom he was more than ordinarily interested--Shirley Rossmore, daughter of Judge Rossmore, of the United States Supreme Court, who had come abroad to recuperate after the labours on her new novel, "The American Octopus," a book which was then the talk of two hemispheres.
Jefferson had read half a dozen reviews of it in as many American papers that afternoon at the _New York Herald's_ reading room in the Avenue de l'Opera, and he chuckled with glee as he thought how accurately this young woman had described his father.

The book had been published under the pseudonym "Shirley Green," and he alone had been admitted into the secret of authorship.

The critics all conceded that it was the book of the year, and that it portrayed with a pitiless pen the personality of the biggest figure in the commercial life of America.

"Although," wrote one reviewer, "the leading character in the book is given another name, there can be no doubt that the author intended to give to the world a vivid pen portrait of John Burkett Ryder.

She has succeeded in presenting a remarkable character-study of the most remarkable man of his time." He was particularly pleased with the reviews, not only for Miss Rossmore's sake, but also because his own vanity was gratified.