ong the
passage?"

"Chappie of the name of Hymack. I met him in France. A composer and what
not."

"We seem to have been moving in artistic circles this afternoon. The
girl I went to see is a singer. At least, she wants to sing, but gets no
encouragement."

"Precisely the same with my bird. He wants to get his music sung but
nobody'll sing it. But I didn't know you knew any Greenwich Village
warblers, sunshine of my home. How did you meet this female?"

Lucille sat down and gazed forlornly at him with her big grey eyes. She
was registering something, but Archie could not gather what it was.

"Archie, darling, when you married me you undertook to share my sorrows,
didn't you?"

"Absolutely! It's all in the book of words. For better or for worse, in
sickness and in health, all-down-set-'em-up-in-the-other-alley. Regular
iron-clad contract!"

"Then share 'em!" said Lucille. "Bill's in love again!"

Archie blinked.

"Bill? When you say Bill, do you mean Bill? Your brother Bill? My
brother-in-law Bill? Jolly old William, the son and heir of the
Brewsters?"

"I do."

"You say he's in love? Cupid's dart?"

"Even so!"

"But, I say! Isn't this rather--What I mean to say is, the lad's an
absolute scourge! The Great Lover, what! Also ran, Brigham Young, and
all that sort of thing! Why, it's only a few weeks ago that he was
moaning brokenly about that vermilion-haired female who subsequently
hooked on to old Reggie van Tuyl!"

"She's a little better than that girl, thank goodness. All the same, I
don't think Father will approve."

"Of what calibre is the latest exhibit?"

"Well, she comes from the Middle West, and seems to be trying to be
twice as Bohemian as the rest of the girls down in Greenwich Village.
She wears her hair bobbed and goes about in a kimono. She's probably
read magazine stories about Greenwich Village, and has modelled herself
on them. It's so silly, when you can see Hicks Corners sticking out of
her all the time."

"That one got past me before I could grab it. What did you say she had
sticking out of her?"

"I meant that anybody could see that she came from somewhere out in the
wilds. As a matter of fact, Bill tells me that she was brought up in
Snake Bite, Michigan."

"Snake Bite? What rummy names you have in America! Still, I'll admit
there's a village in England called Nether Wallop, so who am I to cast
the first stone? How is old Bill? Pretty feverish?"

"He says this time it is