of the fortune myself."

"Well, dearie," said Eileen, "it is really very simple. Put it in a
savings account, of course. Keep it for a rainy day. You may be ill. You
may get married--"

"Can't she get married without twenty-five hundred dollars?" asked Nolan,
with great indignation. "She doesn't expect to buy her own groceries when
she gets married, does she?"

"She may have to, Nolan," said Eileen gently. "One never knows what may
happen after marriage. Getting married is no laughing matter, and Eveley
should be prepared for any exigency."

"But, Eileen, she won't need her twenty-five hundred to get married. No
decent fellow would marry a girl unless he could support her, and do it
well, even luxuriously. You don't suppose I would let my wife spend her
twenty-five hundred--"

"If you mean me, I shall do whatever I like with my own money when I get
married," said Eveley quickly. "My husband will have nothing to say about
it. You needn't think for one minute--"

"I am not your husband, am I? I haven't exactly proposed to you yet, have
I?"

Eveley swallowed hard. "Certainly not. And probably never will. By the
time you get around to it, getting married will be out of date, and none
of the best people doing it any more."

"You may not have asked her, Nolan," said Eileen evenly. "And that is
your business, of course. She will probably turn you down when you do ask
her, just as she does everybody else. But--"

"Who has been asking her now?" he cried, with jealous interest.

"But while we are on the subject, I hope you will permit me to say that I
think your principles are all wrong, and even dangerous. You think a man
should wait a thousand years until he can keep a wife like a pet dog, on
a cushion with a pink ribbon around her neck--"

"The dog's neck, or the wife's?"

"The dog's--no, the wife's--both of them," she decided at last, with
never a ruffle. "You want to wait until she is tired of loving, and too
old to have a good time, and worn out with work. It isn't right. It is
not fair. It is unjust both to yourself, and to Eve--to the girl."

"But, my dear child," he said. Eileen was three years older than Nolan;
but being a lawyer he called all women "child." "My dear child, do you
realize that my salary is eighteen hundred a year, and I get only a few
hundred dollars in fees. Think of the cost of food these days, and of
clothes, and amusements, to say nothing of rent! Do you think I would
allow Eve--my