"I'll do it," I agreed, a bit ruefully, "if only to see the face of the
oogly husband when his bride is properly corseted and shod."

Whereupon Frau Knapf, in a panic, remembered the unset Kuchen dough and
rushed away, with her hand on her lips and her eyes big with secrecy.
And I sat staring at the last typewritten page stuck in my typewriter
and I found that the little letters on the white page were swimming in a
dim purple haze.

CHAPTER X. A TRAGEDY OF GOWNS

From husbands in general, and from oogly German husbands in particular
may Hymen defend me! Never again will I attempt to select "echt
Amerikanische" clothes for a woman who must not weary her young husband.
But how was I to know that the harmless little shopping expedition
would resolve itself into a domestic tragedy, with Herr Nirlanger as the
villain, Frau Nirlanger as the persecuted heroine, and I as--what is it
in tragedy that corresponds to the innocent bystander in real life? That
would be my role.

The purchasing of the clothes was a real joy. Next to buying pretty
things for myself there is nothing I like better than choosing them for
some one else. And when that some one else happens to be a fascinating
little foreigner who coos over the silken stuffs in a delightful mixture
of German and English; and especially when that some one else must be
made to look so charming that she will astonish her oogly husband, then
does the selecting of those pretty things cease to be a task, and become
an art.

It was to be a complete surprise to Herr Nirlanger. He was to know
nothing of it until everything was finished and Frau Nirlanger, dressed
in the prettiest of the pretty Amerikanisch gowns, was ready to astound
him when he should come home from the office of the vast plant where he
solved engineering problems.

"From my own money I buy all this," Frau Nirlanger confided to me, with
a gay little laugh of excitement, as we started out. "From Vienna it
comes. Always I have given it at once to my husband, as a wife should.
Yesterday it came, but I said nothing, and when my husband said to me,
'Anna, did not the money come as usual to-day? It is time,' I told a
little lie--but a little one, is it not? Very amusing it was. Almost I
did laugh. Na, he will not be cross when he see how his wife like the
Amerikanische ladies will look. He admires very much the ladies of
Amerika. Many times he has said so."

("I'll wager he has--the great, ugly boor!" I