daughter the truth, allowing her to break her engagement to Major Atchley
if she chose.
"We'll go away somewhere," he said. "California, perhaps. Although I'll
never try to publish a paper again, at least my life will cease to be a
torment."
Alone with her father once more, Penny had two requests to make.
"Name them," he urged.
"Can you get Tillie Fellows a job?"
"Easily."
"And will you take Horney into your own plant?"
"I'll be glad to do it as soon as the _Star_ operates again. Until
remodeling work is completed I have no plant."
"Yes, you have, Dad. This building is yours if you can make arrangements
with Mr. Veeley."
"Penny! You're willing to give up the _Weekly_?"
"Willing?" she laughed. "I'm hilariously crazy to get rid of it. Matters
have reached a state where either I must abandon the paper or my
education. I've only awaited a chance to end my career in a blaze of
glory."
"A blaze expresses it very mildly," smiled Mr. Parker. "In all modesty,
let us say a conflagration!"
"Oh, why be modest?" grinned Penny. "Let's come right out and call it a
holocaust! That's the strongest word I know."
THE END
Transcriber's Notes
--Replaced the list of books in the series by the complete list, as in
the final book, "The Cry at Midnight".
--Silently corrected a handful of palpable typos.
--Conforming to later volumes, standardized on "DeWitt" as the name of
the city editor.