am's face.

"Heavens, Billy! And is that why you haven't been anywhere, or done
anything? Is that why Calderwell said to-day that you hadn't been with
them anywhere, and that--Great Scott, Billy! Did you think I was such a
selfish brute as that?"

"Oh, but when I was going with them I _was_ following the book--I
thought," quavered Billy; and hurriedly she turned the leaves to a
carefully marked passage. "It's there--about the outside interests. See?
I _was_ trying to brush up against them, so that I wouldn't interfere
with your Art. Then, when you accused me of gallivanting off with--"
But Bertram swept her back into his arms, and not for some minutes could
Billy make a coherent speech again.

Then Bertram spoke.

"See here, Billy," he exploded, a little shakily, "if I could get you
off somewhere on a desert island, where there weren't any Aunt Hannahs
or Kates, or Talks to Young Wives, I think there'd be a chance to make
you happy; but--"

"Oh, but there was truth in it," interrupted Billy, sitting erect again.
"I _didn't_ know how to run a house, and it was perfectly awful while we
were having all those dreadful maids, one after the other; and no woman
should be a wife who doesn't know--"

"All right, all right, dear," interrupted Bertram, in his turn. "We'll
concede that point, if you like. But you _do_ know now. You've got the
efficient housewife racket down pat even to the last calory your husband
should be fed; and I'll warrant there isn't a Mary Ellen in Christendom
who can find a spot of ignorance on you as big as a pinhead! So we'll
call that settled. What you need now is a good rest; and you're going to
have it, too. I'm going to have six Mary Ellens here to-morrow morning.
Six! Do you hear? And all you've got to do is to get your gladdest rags
together for a trip to Europe with me next month. Because we're going.
I shall get the tickets to-morrow, _after_ I send the six Mary Ellens
packing up here. Now come, put on your bonnet. We're going down town to
dinner."

CHAPTER XVIII. BILLY TRIES HER HAND AT "MANAGING"

Bertram did not engage six Mary Ellens the next morning, nor even one,
as it happened; for that evening, Eliza--who had not been unaware of
conditions at the Strata--telephoned to say that her mother was so much
better now she believed she could be spared to come to the Strata for
several hours each day, if Mrs. Henshaw would like to have her begin in
that way.

Billy agreed prompt