inhumanity to woman. She ended in a sanitorium; in fact, they're
thinking now of taking her to the--"

"--bug house," Jimmie finished cheerfully.

"And in the beginning she was a perfectly good girl that needed
nothing in the world but a chance to develop along legitimate lines."

"The frustrate matron, eh?" Peter said.

"The frustrate matron," David agreed gravely. "I wonder you haven't
realized this yourself, Gram. You're keener about such things than I
am. Beulah is more your job than mine."

"Is she?"

"You're the only one she listens to or looks up to. Go up and tackle
her some day and see what you can do. She's sinking fast."

"Give her the once over and throw out the lifeline," Jimmie said.

"I thought all this stuff was a phase, a part of her taking herself
seriously as she always has. I had no idea it was anything to worry
about," Peter persisted. "Are you sure she's in bad shape--that she's
got anything more than a bad attack of Feminism of the Species in its
most virulent form? They come out of _that_, you know."

"She's batty," Jimmie nodded gravely. "Dave's got the right dope."

"Go up and look her over," David persisted; "you'll see what we mean,
then. Beulah's in a bad way."

Peter reviewed this conversation while he shaved the right side of his
face, and frowned prodigiously through the lather. He wished that he
had an engagement that evening that he could break in order to get to
see Beulah at once, and discover for himself the harm that had come to
his friend. He was devoted to Beulah. He had always felt that he saw
a little more clearly than the others the virtue that was in the girl.
He admired the pluck with which she made her attack on life and the
energy with which she accomplished her ends. There was to him
something alluring and quaint about her earnestness. The fact that her
soundness could be questioned came to him with something like a shock.
As soon as he was dressed he was called to the telephone to talk to
David.

"Margaret has just told me that Doctor Penrose has been up to see
Beulah and pronounces it a case of nervous breakdown. He wants her to
try out psycho-analysis, and that sort of thing. He seems to feel that
it's serious. Margaret is fearfully upset, poor girl. So'm I, to tell
the truth."

"And so am I," Peter acknowledged to himself as he hung up the
receiver. He was so absorbed during the evening that one of the
ladies--the wife of the fat banker--found him extre