il the bills for the villa were settled and the O'Valleys
established in the gondola-endowed home. Trudy sometimes pinched
herself to realize that in such a short space of time she was living
in the Touraine apartment house and that her husband, whom she loathed
more each day, had actually scrambled into the position of being the
best decorator in Hanover and was busy splitting commissions and
wheedling orders from New York art dealers and Hanover's social set.

Sometimes Nature takes her own methods of revenge, and to Mark
Constantine's child she saw fit to send no son or daughter.
Constantine never mentioned his hunger for grandchildren. He had a
strange shyness about admitting the desire and the plans he had made
for them. But when he saw the completion of this villa and realized
the thousands of dollars squandered upon it and the impossible
existence his daughter would lead living therein he went to his
untouched plain room, looking out on sunken gardens, to try to figure
out how this had all come about.

He fumbled in mental chaos as to the meaning of all this nonsense and
longed more than ever for a grandchild, someone who should be quite
unspoiled and who would not approach him with light, begrudged kisses
and a request for money.

The formal Venetian ball which Beatrice gave to open her new home
merely amused Steve, who had really dreaded it with the hysteria of a
schoolgirl. He hated the whole scheme of the house and the man who
was reaping a rich harvest by engaging the army of persons who had
done the work therein. He rejoiced openly at each delay on the part of
the plumber, the tinsmith, the decorator; and openly gave a
thanksgiving when the illustrated wall paper for the halls, which told
the legend of Psyche and Cupid, had been sent to Davy Jones's locker
en route from Florence. Steve's name for the Villa Rosa was the Fuller
Gloom.

But when they did move into the new-old home and Steve was led through
each room of gammon and spinach, as he had faintly whispered to Mary
Faithful, he found himself only amused. Now that he considered it, it
was a relief to know Beatrice had such a new and absorbing plaything
to take up her time and keep her aloof from his personal affairs. He
sought out his father-in-law in his plain room with its walnut set and
stand of detective stories, and sat down in relief, though the two men
honourably refrained from criticizing a certain person openly.

At the ball Beatrice app