d, smiling sweetly. "And tell
Gay he must come see me to-morrow. I have a plan that I want to tell
him--and no one else. Besides, there is a flaw in the last pair of
candlesticks he bought for me."

Trudy realized perfectly well that sweetness from the lips of an obese
lady, after one has assured her of the arrival of a double chin,
always augurs ill for everyone.

Originally Trudy had determined to use Gaylord as a stepping-stone, a
rather satisfactory first husband. But since Beatrice's commission to
do the villa and the stream of like orders from the new-rich who were
trying to unload their war fortunes before they were caught at it,
Trudy had grown content and even keen about Gaylord in an impersonal
sense. She felt that she could not better herself if he continued to
do as well as he had the last few months, and that she would continue
to do her share of hill-climbing indefinitely. In other words, having
won Gaylord in the remnant department, Trudy decided to keep him and
make him answer the purpose of paying her board bill.

Besides, though she admitted it only to Mary, she felt anything but
well. The more money Gaylord made the more he spent on himself, and he
seemed to expect Trudy to manage out of the ozone, yet to appear as
the indulged wife of her enterprising young husband. It never
ended--the eternal searching for bargains; dyeing clothes and mending,
cleaning, and pressing; living on delicatessen food; sitting up nights
to help out with the work, often doing odds and ends of sewing, and
appearing the next afternoon in the customer's house to admire the
effect of the new drapery and tell of the bright-eyed Italian woman
who had done the work.

Trudy saw little of Mary. Her better self made her stay aloof lest she
win from her friend other details to add to her already safeguarded
secret. And she never attempted to amuse Steve. She fought shy of him
when he was about, wisely limiting herself to shy nods and smiles and
occasionally a very meek compliment, which he usually pretended not to
hear.

As she walked home from the villa--Gay had the roadster--she told
herself that she must watch out or Beatrice would attempt to spoil Gay
to the extent of making him wish to be rid of his wife. She realized
that Gay was extremely scornful and careless of her. Having married
her and satisfied his one-cylinder brain that he was a deuce of a chap
and a democratic rake in marrying this dashing nobody Gaylord turned