h tan slip-covers and electric lights.
"Afford it?" he echoed, "of course we can afford it. We can afford
anything. Hang it all, our lean days are over and we haven't had the
imagination to wake up to the fact. And d'you know what I'm going to do
if certain things come my way? I'm going to send you and the Babe down
to New York for the winter!"

"And where will you be?" I promptly inquired. The look of mingled pride
and determination went out of his face.

"Oh, I'll have to hang around the Polar regions up here to look after
things. But you and the Boy have got to have your chance. And I'll come
down for two weeks at Easter and bring you home with me!"

"And will you be enjoying it up here?" I inquired.

"Of course I won't," acknowledged Dinky-Dunk. "But think what it will
mean to you, Gee-Gee, to have a few months in the city again! And think
what you've been missing!"

"Goosey-goosey-gander!" I said as I got his foolish old head in
Chancery. "I want you to listen to me. There's nothing I've been
missing. And you are plum locoed, Honey Chile, if you think I could ever
be happy away from you, in New York or any other city. And I wouldn't go
there for the winter if you gave me the Plaza and all the Park for a
back yard!"

That declaration of mine seemed to puzzle him. "But think what it would
mean to the Boy!" he contended.

"Well, what?" I demanded.

"Oh, good--er--good pictures and music and all that sort of thing!" he
vaguely explained. I couldn't help laughing at him.

"But, Dinky-Dunk, don't you think Babe's a month or so too young to take
up Debussy and the Post-Impressionists, you big, foolish, adorable old
muddle-headed captor of helpless ladies' hearts!" And I firmly announced
that he could never, never get rid of me.

_Thursday the Fifteenth_

Now that Olga is working altogether inside with me she is losing quite a
little of her sunburn. Her skin is softer and she has acquired a little
more of the Leonardo di Vinci look. She almost seems to be getting
spiritualized--but it may be simply because she's lengthened her skirts.
She loves Babe, and, I'm afraid, is rather spoiling him. I find her a
better and better companion, not only because she talks more, but
because she seems in some way to be climbing up to a newer level.
Between whiles, I'm teaching her to cook. She learns readily, and is
proud of her progress. But the thing of which she is proudest is her
corsets. And they _do_ make a dif