sked shrewdly.
"Throwing bread on the waters! I daresay he angled for it. You're easy,
Clay. Give you a good dinner--it was a nice dinner, wasn't it?"

"A very nice dinner," he assented. But at the tone she looked up.

"Well, what was wrong?" she demanded. "I saw when I went out that you
were angry about something. Your face was awful."

"Oh, come now, Natalie," he protested. "It wasn't anything of the
sort. The dinner was all right. The guests were--all right. I may have
unconsciously resented your attitude about Doctor Haverford. Certainly
he didn't angle for it, and I had no idea of throwing a sop to
Providence."

"That isn't what was wrong at dinner."

"Do you really want me to tell you?"

"Not if it's too disagreeable."

"Good heavens, Natalie. One would think I bullied you!"

"Oh, no, you don't bully. It's worse. It's the way you look. Your face
sets. Well?"

"I didn't feel unpleasant. It's rather my misfortune that my face--"

"Didn't you like my gown?"

"Very much. It seemed a trifle low, but you know I always like your
clothes." He was almost pathetically anxious to make up to her for that
moment's disloyalty in the library.

"There!" she said, brushing the papers aside. "Now we're getting at
it. Was I anything like as low as Audrey Valentine? Of course not! Her
back--You just drive me to despair, Clay. Nothing I do pleases you. The
very tone of that secretary of yours to-day, when I told her about that
over-draft--it was positively insulting!"

"I don't like overdrafts," he said, without any irritation. "When you
want extra amounts you have only to let me know."

"You are always finding fault with me," she complained. "It's either
money, or my clothes, or Graham, or something." Her eyes filled. She
looked young and absurdly childish. But a talk he had had with the
rector was still in his mind. It was while they were still at the table,
and Nolan had been attacking the British government.

"We get out of this world largely what we put into it," he had said.
"You give largely, Clay, and you receive largely. I rejoice in your
prosperity, because you have earned it."

"You think, then," he had asked, "that we only receive as we give? I
don't mean material things, of course."

The rector had fixed him with kindly, rather faded old eyes. "That has
been my experience," he said. "Happiness for instance only comes when
we forget our eternal search for it, and try to make others happy. Even
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