the large diamond on
her stubby finger and reflected that even if its giver was not the Idol
of her Dreams, he was very good to her, and she ought to be happy. She
meant to make him a good wife as she understood that vague term, and
thus repay him for all his bounties. As a matter of fact the little
Parker man was getting repaid already in social matters for his generous
act in selecting a poor girl to share his affluence. The world knew him
to be sharp, and was glad to think him kind....

"It's a very handsome one, Clarence," Milly said of the ring, turning it
critically to the light. And she sweetly held up her face to be kissed.

That, to be frank, was the part she liked least of the whole affair,
"demonstrations," and she dealt out her favors to her lover sparingly.
However, her fiance was not demonstrative by nature: if he had amorous
passions, he kept them carefully concealed, so that Milly could manage
that side quite easily. It usually came merely to a pressure of hands, a
cold kiss on the brow, or a flutter along the bronze tendrils about the
neck. Sometimes Milly speculated what it might be like later in the
obscure intimacy of marriage, but she dismissed the subject easily,
confident that she could "manage" as she did now. And she had the sweet
sense of self-sacrifice in doing something personally disagreeable. "If
it hadn't been for poor old Dad," she would say to herself and sigh.
Which was not wholly sincere. At this period of their lives few mortals
can be square with themselves.

All such refinements of thought and feeling were rare because there was
no time for revery. Milly was determined to get the most out of her
triumph, and drove the peaceable Clarence Albert rather hard. All women,
he had supposed in his ignorance, were more or less fragile. But it was
astonishing what an amount of nerve-racking gayety Milly could get
through in a day and come up smiling the next morning for another
sixteen-hour bout with pleasure. Sometimes Clarence protested that he
was a working man and must be at his office by nine. But Milly had
slight mercy; she let him see plainly the social duty of the American
husband. He too reflected, it might be, that things would be different
after the wedding and yawned away the hours as best he could at dance or
dinner or late supper in Old Vienna on the famous Midway.

It was Chicago's wonderful festal year, the summer of the great Fair.
Responsible men of large affairs, who kn