hrough. I wish she didn't think so much of the office and
would get a nice young man. I'd like to know what it is in those books she
finds so fascinating. Can you tell me? I tried to read Omar Canine
myself but it was too much for me."

"I'm no highbrow," Trudy had laughed. "Mary is; and a fine girl,
besides," she had added, resentfully.

With all Trudy's shallow nature and shrewd selfishness she was as fond
of Mary as she was capable of being fond of any one. Besides, it was
more comfortable to be a member of the Faithful household for nine
dollars a week and be allowed hot cakes and sirup a la kimono on
Sunday morning; to have Gaylord Vondeplosshe, her friend, frequent the
parlour at will; to use the telephone and laundry, and to occupy the
best room in the house than to have to tuck into a room similar to
Miss Lunk's--and she was truly grateful to Mary for having taken her
in. She felt that Mrs. Faithful underestimated her man of the family.

Mary at the present time earned forty dollars a week. Out of this she
supported her family and saved a little. At regular intervals she
tried persuading her mother to leave the old-fashioned house and move
into a modern apartment, which would give her the opportunity of
dispensing with Trudy as a boarder. But her mother liked Trudy, with
her airs and graces, her beaux, her startling frocks. Trudy was
company; Mary was not. She was the breadwinner and a wonderful
daughter, as Mrs. Faithful always said when callers mentioned her. But
the mother had never been friends with her children nor with their
father. So Mary had grown up accustomed to work and loneliness; and,
most important of all, accustomed to considering everyone else first
and herself last. It was Mary who saw beneath the boisterousness of
Luke's boy nature and spied the good therein, trying to develop it as
best she could. Aside from Luke and her business she found amusement
in her dream life of loving Steve O'Valley and vicariously sharing his
joys and sorrows, safeguarding his interests.

She had told herself four years ago: "You clumsy, thin business
woman--the idea of halfway dreaming that such a man as Steve would
ever love you! Of course he's intended for the Gorgeous Girl; the very
law of opposites makes him care for her--pretty, useless doll. So take
your joy in being his business partner, because the Gorgeous Girl can
never share the partnership any more than you could share his name;
and there's a heap o