it with her?" said McLaughlin slowly.

The partners looked at each other with a certain understanding, not too
definite--just a suggestion.

"You think I'm morbid, Perk. You think I see things that ain't so.
Just you keep your eye on him. See how he acts to you."

But Skinner had more than any constraint on the part of McLaughlin to
worry him. His real concern found its source in the domestic circle.
At first, he was exuberant, intoxicated with the vision of social
possibilities. But now a reaction had set in, a reaction promoted by
the attitude of Honey. Honey, too, was now constrained. Skinner
persistently pressed her to tell him what was the matter. She finally
admitted that she was frightened by the plunge into extravagance they'd
taken. They had made a big hole in their bank account. To her, it was
like blasting a rock from under the foundation of the wall which for
years they had been building up, stone by stone, to stand between them
and destitution.

At times, when Skinner allowed his mind to dwell on it, he was shocked.
But being the chief sinner in the matter, he felt it incumbent on him
to bolster up the faltering spirits of Honey. He would not for a
moment admit to her that they had acted unwisely. Even so, he was
protesting against the conviction that was gradually deepening within
him that he'd made something of a fool of himself!

Invariably, it was during these fits of abstraction, superinduced by
the doubt that was broadening in Skinner's consciousness as to the
wisdom of his scheme of self-promotion, that either McLaughlin or
Perkins encountered him--so curiously does fate direct our affairs with
a view to promoting dramatic ends. Once, in the depths of abstraction,
Skinner actually passed Perkins in the passageway without so much as a
nod of recognition.

"By Jove," said the junior partner to McLaughlin later on, "I believe
there _is_ something in your talk about Skinner. He actually passed me
in the passageway just now without speaking!"

And because they had begun to watch him, every little thing Skinner did
took on an artificial significance--was given undue weight.

CHAPTER V

THE OPERATING EXPENSES OF THE DRESS SUIT

Skinner's feelings were not of the most amiable when on Saturday he
drew his first check on his own private bank account to pay himself his
first week's raise. And he swore lightly as he realized that this
would be a weekly reminder of his folly, perh