dly begun, that he would be willing to come
over with me. It's a pretty stiff proposition for a woman to run a big
show like that, and I'd have been glad of help. _He_ allowed I'd have
to sell up and keep house for him in England, and make a splash among
the big-wigs to help him in his career. He put it as politely as he
knew how, but he made me understand that it was beneath his dignity to
live in America and work in pickles, and he guessed if I sold out I
could find a buyer who would look after the men as well as or better
than I did myself. So--" she waved her small white hands--"there we
were! He wouldn't, and I couldn't! That's the truth, Patricia. I
could _not_! I don't dispute that another person might not manage as
well as I, that's not the question. It's my work, it's my
responsibility; those men were left to _me_, and I can't desert. So the
dream's over, my dear, and I'm going back to real hard life."

Pixie nodded, the big tears standing in her eyes.

"I should have done the same. He didn't love you _enough_."

Honor gave a quivering laugh.

"He said the same of me. Couldn't seem to see any difference between
the two `give-ups'; but there _is_ a difference, Patricia. Well, my
dear, that's the end of it. We said good-bye, and there's no reason why
we should meet again. ... Our lives lie in different places, and it's
no use trying to join them."

"Honor, dear, are you very unhappy?"

Honor's neat little features puckered in a grimace.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say I feel exactly gay, Patricia, but don't
you worry about me. I'll come up smiling. You wouldn't have me pine
for the sake of a man who wouldn't have me when he got the chance? I
guess Honor P Ward has too much grit for that!"

Pixie nodded slowly.

"But you mustn't be too hard on him, Honor--It's natural to want to live
in one's own country, and he loves _his_ work just as you do yours.
He'll be a judge some day--chins like that always _do_ succeed--and
ambition means so much to a man. You might have been pleased for your
own sake; but would you have thought more of _him_ as a _man_ if he'd
thrown it all up and lived on your pickles?"

Honor brought her eyebrows together in a frown.

"Now, Pixie O'Shaughnessy, don't you go taking his part! I guess I've
got about as much sense of justice as most, and in a few months' time
I'll see the matter in its right light, but for the moment I'm injured,
and I _choose_ to feel in