e took too long a motor trip yesterday, the sun was so
bright.... No, indeed; you do not make my headache worse. It's better
right this minute.... Now please don't laugh at our little place.
Can't you play you're a doll and this is the house you were supposed
to live in? I do--I find myself laughing every time I really take time
to stand back and look at the rooms.... Put your coat here. Such a
charming one, the skins are so exquisitely matched. I do so want to
talk to you."

She had such an honest, innocent expression that Beatrice found
herself won over to the cause. Trudy understood Beatrice at first
sight; she knew how to proceed without blundering.

"Sit here, Mrs. Steve, for I can't call you Mrs. O'Valley with Gay
singing the praises of Bea and Beatrice and the Gorgeous Girl."

"Then--er--call me Beatrice," she found herself saying.

"How wonderful! But only on condition that I am Trudy to you. How
pleased Gay is going to be! He adores you. You have no idea of how
much he talks about you and approves all you do and say. I used to be
a teeny weeny bit jealous of you when I was a poor little nobody." She
passed the chocolates, nodding graciously as Beatrice selected the
largest one in the box.

Trudy chattered ahead: "I was glancing through these fashion books
this afternoon to get an idea for an afternoon dress. Of course I
can't have wonderful things like you have"--looking with envy at the
Gorgeous Girl's black-velvet costume--"still, I don't mind. When one
is happy mere things do not matter, do they--Beatrice?"

Beatrice hesitated. Then she fortified herself by another bonbon. This
strange girl was both interesting and dangerous. Certainly she was not
to be snubbed or ridiculed. Vaguely Beatrice tried to analyze her
hostess, but as she had never been called upon to judge human nature
she was sluggish in even trying to exercise her faculties.

In China fathers have their daughters' feet bound and make them sleep
away from the house so their moans will not disturb the family. In
America fathers often repress their daughters' self-sufficiency and
intellect by bonds of self-indulgence, and when the daughters realize
that a stockade of dollars is a most flimsy fortress in the world
against the experiences which come to every man and woman the American
girls are the mental complement of their physically tortured Chinese
cousins--hopeless and without redress.

"You have made this place look well," Beatrice sai