missing for many months.

During the winter the rift between Steve and Beatrice became
noticeable even to the Gorgeous Girl's friends, to Trudy's infinite
delight; and by the time spring came it was an accepted thing that
Steve's share in the scheme of things was to write checks and occupy
as little space as possible in the apartment, whereas Beatrice's part
in the scheme of things was to badger and nag at her husband eternally
or be frigidly polite and civil, which was far harder to endure than
her temper.

The Gorgeous Girl's endeavours to become an advanced woman, an
intellectual patroness and so on, were amusing and ineffectual. She
soon found neither pleasure nor satisfaction in any of her near-lions.
Nor did she succeed in making them roar. Whether it was a parlour
lecture on Did a Chinese Monk Visit America a Thousand Years before
Columbus? or a Baby Party at which Beatrice and Gay dressed as twins
and were wheeled about in a white pram by Trudy, dressed as a French
_bonne_--the reaction was one of depression and defeat. Though
Beatrice still had her name printed on the reports of charity
committees she no longer took what was termed an active part. She
shrugged her shoulders carelessly and gave the reason that it was all
so hopeless--and no fun at all.

Inanimate things afforded the most satisfaction; at least she could
buy an individual breakfast service costing a thousand dollars and
have the item recorded in all the fashion journals, with her
photograph, and she could have the most unique dinner favours and the
smartest frocks, and they never disappointed her.

Besides, the Italian villa was to be finished shortly and that would
necessitate a new round of entertainments and minor adjustments and no
end of enviable publicity and comment. This diversion would take her
through the late spring and summer, and in the fall she fully intended
to take up dress reform and become a feminist. She had an idea of
wearing nothing but draped Grecian robes--which could be made to look
quite fetching if one had enough jewellery to punctuate the
drapes--and of going in for barefoot dancing on the lawn. It would be
more convenient if she could persuade her father and aunt not to stay
on at the Villa Rosa, as it was to be called. And certainly it would
have been more aesthetic to look across the street and see something
besides another expensive and hopelessly mediocre brick house which
another rich man somewhat after Const