s, where
her eyes roved sharply over the decorations.

"They look lovely, don't they?" she inquired, rearranging a bowl of
American Beauty roses. "I got that new man to do them Mrs. Carrington
told me about--Yes, Carrie, I'm coming! Why, I declare, I haven't seen
the baby since breakfast. Unnatural mother!"

And she rushed off to the nursery, followed by Galt.

An hour later she was in the drawing-room again, her fair hair caught
back from her plump cheeks, her white bosom shining through soft falls
of lace.

"I wonder how a man feels who isn't married to a beauty," remarked Galt,
watching her matronly vanity dimple beneath his gaze. He was as much her
lover as he had been more than twenty years ago when pretty Juliet
Burwell had put back her wedding veil to meet his kiss. The very
exactions of her petted nature had served to keep alive the passion of
his youth; she demanded service as her right, and he yielded it as her
due. The unflinching shrewdness of his professional character, the
hardness of his business beliefs, had never entered into the atmosphere
of his home. Juliet possessed to a degree that pervasive womanliness
which vanquishes mankind. After twenty years of married life in which
Galt had learned her limitations and her minor sins of temperament, he
was not able to face her stainless bosom or to meet her pure eyes
without believing her to be a saint. In his heart he knew Sally Burwell
to be a nobler woman than Juliet, and yet he never found himself
regarding Sally through an outward and visible veil of her virtues.
Even Tom Bassett, who was married to her, had lost the lover in the
husband, as his emotions had matured into domestic sentiment. Galt had
seen Sally wrestle for a day with one of her father's headaches, to be
rewarded by less gratitude than Juliet would receive for the mere laying
of a white finger on his temple--Sally's services were looked upon by
those who loved her best as one of the daily facts of life; Juliet's
came always as an additional bounty.

To Galt himself, the different developments of the two women had become
a source of almost humorous surprise. After her marriage Sally had sunk
her future into Tom's; Galt had submerged his own in Juliet's. Behind
Tom's not too remarkable success Galt had seen always Sally's quicker
wit and more active nature; to his own ambitions, his love for Juliet
had been the retarding influence. He had been called "insanely aspiring"
in his professi