and plan for the future, to
respond graciously to every civic call made upon him, would find
himself enmeshed in a desperate combination of Beatrice's dismay over
the cut of her new coat, her delight at the latest scandal, her
headaches, the special order for glace chestnuts he must not forget,
the demand that he come home for luncheon just because she wanted him
to talk to, the New York trip looming ahead with Bea coaxing him to
stay the entire time and let business slide along as it would. All the
while the anaesthesia of unreality was lessening in its effect now that
he had attained his goal.

The rapt adoration he felt for his wife was in a sense a rather subtle
form of egotism he felt for himself. The Gorgeous Girl or rather any
Gorgeous Girl personified his starved dreams and frantic ambitions. He
had turned his face toward such a goal for so many tense years,
goading himself on and breathing in the anaesthesia of indifference and
unreality to all else about him that having obtained it he now paused
exhausted and about to make many disconcerting discoveries. Had the
Gorgeous Girl had hair as black as his own or a nose such as Mary
Faithful's she would have still been his goal, symbol of his aims.

Having finished the long battle Steve now felt an urge to begin to
battle for something else besides wealth and social position. He felt
ill at ease in Beatrice's salon and among her friends, who all seemed
particularly inane and ridiculous, who were all just as busy and tired
and nervous as Beatrice was for some strange reason, and who
considered it middle class not to smoke and common to show any natural
sentiment or emotion. He soon found it was quite the thing to display
the temperament of an oyster when any vital issue was discussed or any
play, for example, had a scene of deep and inspiring words. A queer
little smirk or titter was the proper applause, but one must wax
enthusiastic and superlative over a clever burglary, a new-style
dance, a chafing-dish concoction, or, a risque story retold in
drawing-room language.

Before his marriage Beatrice had always been terribly rushed and he
had had more time in which to work and glow with pride at the nearing
of his goal. She kept him at arm's length very cleverly anchored with
the two-carat engagement ring and Steve had to fight for time and
plead for an audience. It fired his imagination, making him twice as
keen for the final capture.

But when two persons live