.
Finally an old college acquaintance of Jack's, who had made his debut in
literature successfully and was engaged to provide a woman's magazine
with one of his tender stories with a pronounced "heart interest,"
promised to secure the illustrations for Bragdon. "If I can catch on,"
the artist told his wife, "it means--anything. Clive Reinhard turns out
one of his sloppy stories every six months, and they are all
illustrated."

Altogether when they set sail they calculated their resources, if
carefully managed, could be made to last three years. Three years of
Europe!... Milly had never looked so far ahead in all her life.

* * * * *

Milly, snugly tucked up on the leeward side of the deck, closed her eyes
as the boat rolled with heavy dignity, and thought. To be perfectly
frank her married life in the four-room flat on the outskirts of Chicago
had begun to pall on her. It seemed to lead nowhere. It had not been
very different from the lives of the little people about her, from what
she would have done and been if she had married Ted Donovan, say. Only,
of course, Jack was different from Ted, and with him it could not last
in the commonplace rut. They were merely little people, and very poor
little people, in the big whirl of the western city--with their hope.
Suddenly in the most romantic manner the Hope had taken shape--and
Milly, thanks to grandma's surprising gift, arrogated to herself the
whole credit of that. She did not pause to think what might have
happened to them if they had been obliged to continue in the rut. She
did not realize that already "love was not enough."

But now heigho for Venture and the New Life--the life of Art! Milly
still thought vaguely that according to Mrs. Lamereux it would mean
meeting a lot of interesting people, endless clever talk over delightful
meals in queer little French restaurants or in picturesque and
fascinating studios. "Art" was the next thing to money or fashion. If
one couldn't be awfully rich or a "social leader," the best thing was to
be artistic and distinguished, which brought you into contact with all
sorts of people, among them "the fashionables," of course. She meant
that her husband should be a successful painter, not a mere illustrator.

Of the real nature of Art and the artist's life Milly had no better
conception than when she first fell in love with Jack Bragdon. She knew
nothing of the artist's despairs and triumphs, his tir