For the first time, Jerry faced the fact that he had married a personality, not an automaton. The silent, efficient, machine Jane, of the old days, was not the real Jane at all, or else matrimony had changed her completely. He felt aggrieved. He could not see how he could have made such a mistake. From his present point of view, in fact, his marriage seemed to him like some fantastic act of a man in a fever. Had he, in order to protect himself from Bobs and Althea, married a woman more complex than either of them? He began to wonder why he did not attract Jane? All his life women had liked him, responded to his boyish charm and his handsome face. He could not remember that she had once looked at him, as a woman admiring a fine, bra' lad. She showed no interest in his career, either. He had taken her from a life of drudgery, given her ease and his name. She might at least have devoted herself to his interests. He could not spell her out. She besieged his thoughts; he was never free from her. He made up his mind to show her his displeasure at her ways. So he spent as much time as possible away from the studio. Mrs. Brendon's portrait was finished and displayed in her drawing-room. This time Jerry escorted Jane himself. She was a great success; her gracious but impersonal manner interested people. She was indifferent to their likes or dislikes, yet not rudely so. Mrs. Brendon was impressed with her and told Jerry so. "She can be a great social success, Jerry." "She can, but she won't. It bores her." "What if it does? Has she no consideration for your career?" He shrugged his shoulders. "We must make some plans to really launch her. Abercrombie says she has brains." "No use making any plans for Jane. She makes and breaks her own," said Jerry. It was an aggravation, the way she failed to follow up social opportunities. He complained to her about it and she announced herself absolutely ready to do anything he desired which would help his career. "You can see that a portrait painter has to cultivate the people who have portraits painted, can't you?" "Wouldn't you be freer to work out your own ideas, to develop what is really yours, if you did some other kind of painting, Jerry?" "Yes, and we would be living in a garret." "But I wouldn't mind that at all, if it meant that you were growing." "I suppose you've been talking to Bobs." "No. I don't discuss you with people, Jerry. But I think your friends do feel this about you, that this is the line of the least resistance for you, that it may end in your destruction as an artist." "I am perfectly competent to decide about my work without the advice of my friends. I want ease, luxury, and beauty. I'm sick of grubbing in this little studio. I'm going to get out of it, and soon, too. I've got two orders from the Brendon portrait. Next year I'll raise my prices, and after that we'll see." Jane sighed, but made no answer.