o city
existence. That she should DO anything more than keep their
small home running smoothly and pleasantly--an attractive spot for
friends to come to--and keep herself personally as smart and youthful
and desirable as her circumstances permitted, she would never admit. A
woman's hold on the world, she was convinced, lay in her looks and her
charms, not in her character. And what man who had anything of a man in
him would expect more of his wife?... Her husband, at any rate, gave no
sign of expecting more from _his_ wife. All their friends considered
them a contented and delightful young couple....

It should be added that Milly was a member of the "Consumers' League,"
though she paid no attention to their rules, and had been put on a
"Woman's Immigration Bureau" at the instance of Hazel Fredericks, who
was active in that movement just then. She also had a number of poor
families to look after, to whom she was supposed to act as friend and
guide. She fulfilled this obligation by raising money for them from the
men she knew. "What most people need most is money," Milly
philosophized.... All told, her public activities occupied Milly a
little more than an hour a week.

* * * * *

As a whole, Milly looked back over her life in New York with
satisfaction. They had a pleasant if somewhat cramped home and a great
many warm friends who were very kind to them. They were both well, as a
rule, though usually tired, as every one was, and the child, though
delicate, was reasonably well. Jack was liked at _Bunker's_, and his
periods of depression and restlessness became less frequent. They were
settling down properly into their place in the scheme of things. But
sometimes Milly found life monotonous and a trifle gray, even in New
York.

"Love is the only thing in a woman's life that can compensate!" she
confided to Clive Reinhard.

And the novelist, trained confessor of women's souls, let her think that
he understood.

V

A SHOCK

Milly supposed their life would go on indefinitely like this. She lived
much in the slight fluctuations of the present, with its immediate
gratifications and tribulations. It seemed to her foolish to take long
views, as Jack did sometimes, and wonder what the years might bring
forth. Life had always been full enough of interesting change.

The most disturbing fact at present was the difficulty they had in
deciding where to go for the summers. The questi