loss, Marian, and present conditions aren't helpful."

"I suppose not," she agreed unwillingly; "but do make the period of
waiting as short as possible. Merry and Philip are grown now, and I'm
hungry for another honeymoon, such as we have been having here."

"Some day, little woman, some day!"

"Don't say that, Harry!" she protested again, this time more vigorously.
"There is no expression in the English language I detest so much as
'some day.' When I was a little girl I had an uncle who was forever
going to take me somewhere or give me something 'some day'; and 'some
day' never came! I've always looked upon those two words as a diabolical
combination invented by older people as an aggravation to children. But
I will be patient, Harry. Can't you start in now to take some medicine
which will be sure to clear your blood of business by the time these
things you speak of work themselves out?"

"If present conditions continue," he laughed, "they will accomplish what
you wish better than anything so homeopathic as physic. We shall all be
thrown out of business whether we like it or not. This cable I have just
received," he continued more soberly, "is a case in point: the
government is starting in to 'investigate' one of our pet interests, and
the stock has begun to drop out of sight already. It is paternalism with
a vengeance: protecting the infant industries to encourage their growth,
and then spanking them when they respond!"

"Well," Marian sighed, "it's all Greek to me, but if you say it's wrong
then I know it is. Now," she added, slipping her arm through his, "let's
go over to the pool and see what is going on there."

Shouts of laughter and sounds of splashing greeted them as they reached
the top of the tiled steps of the "Princess" pool, and they paused for a
moment to see the finish of an exciting race.

"You're too fast for us, Miss Merry," Huntington acknowledged his
defeat. Then he turned to Cosden who finished just behind him.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself to let a girl beat you like that,
Connie?" he demanded.

"How about yourself?" was the retort; "you always claimed to be some
swimmer."

"You let me win!" Merry declared.

"Indeed I didn't," Huntington protested stoutly. "It is eminently unfit
that woman should defeat man in any athletic contest; she has beaten us
out in everything else, and we must reserve something. Perhaps Connie
let you beat him,--did you, Connie?"

Cosden laughed consciousl