bully and permitted Trudy to take the cares of the family on her
shoulders. He was now enjoying the fruits of her industry with a fair
credit rating, very different from formerly, a bank account of which
Trudy knew nothing, and the congenial work of pussyfooting about
boudoirs and guzzling tea while perched on Beatrice's blue-satin
gondolas.

He no longer needed Trudy. He could see now that to be single-handed
once more, but with his new standing and profession, would be a most
satisfactory state of affairs. In fact, if Trudy would only fall in
love with a travelling man and decamp--what a chap he would soon rise
to be! For a broken heart is often a man's strongest asset and a
woman's gravest suspicion. Trudy, however, gave him no hope in this
direction. She hung about her fireplace contrary to her former plans
concerning it. She really put in an eighteen-hour day as both slavey
and sylph, and seemed filled with everlasting patience and jazz.

Coming into the Touraine apartment Trudy found Gaylord showing old
prints to some woman customers and advising as to the smartness of
having them framed and used in sun parlours or any intriguing
little nook. Trudy was _de trop_--she was prettier than the
prospective customers, but in their eyes she had only a Winter-Garden
personality--and Gay frowned his welcome.

Had Trudy not come in Gay would have served cocktails of his own
making, which would cause them to order the prints at fabulous prices;
and then sat in the dusk talking about the occult and the popularity
of Persian pussy cats and how to make pear-and-cottage-cheese salad
and serve it on cabbage leaves, which was quite the mode. It never
does for an interior decorator, particularly if specializing in
boudoirs, to have a wife, Gaylord decided as his customers patronized
Trudy and departed, Gaylord seeing them to their car and standing
bareheaded to wave his bejewelled hand as they whirled round the
corner.

He then returned to give Trudy his unbiassed opinion. "I thought you
were going to stay away until evening," he said. "You spoiled the
sale."

"Did I? What were you about to do--play soul mate if they'd take the
old things? I'm the one who found those prints in a second-hand store
and had sense enough to buy the lot. I'm the one who found the
remnants of cretonne you paste them on--and told you to charge ten
dollars each--and I'm the one who sits out in the little back room and
pastes them on, too!"

She thr