But hers was contained in the back of a “veri-thin” wrist watch, and that was where the trouble started. She wanted a lavalliere as a decoration for her bosom! And, growing sarcastic towards the last, he had admitted that that portion of her anatomy did need some kind of covering; but he had denied the efficacy of the “lavalliere” idea for that special purpose. He had contended that both the décolletté in the front and the “open-back” features of her gowns, should stop at the “lines of curvature.” He had even launched into a general tirade against a number of her recent costumes, and had called them “picture-frame” conceptions; because “they performed a similar function,” in that “they merely furnished the setting for emphasizing the details of the things revealed.” That, as he had believed, had settled their argument! But two days before this, she had appeared adorned with the best that Wertheimer, the Paris arbiter of the world’s fashions, could devise in the way of a realization of his “picture-frame” sarcasm; and the row that resulted had, this time, been hectic on both sides--with her scoring the final “point” by throwing her engagement ring at his feet. Then, through the great “Electro-visional” dial attached to his general radio outfit, he had watched her “take off” from the roof in her runabout monoplane, had noted the reckless speed with which she drove it through the air, had chuckled when an aerial speed-cop took her license number and “tagged” her by shooting the citation into the rear of her machine, had seen her land on her own roof and, a moment later, had watched her “take off” again in her large touring biplane and rapidly grow into a tiny speck in the western sky. Evidently his Esmeralda was a high-strung thoroughbred, who meant business when her dander was up! For a brief moment Algernon made a profound effort to solve the problem as to just how long he should keep her waiting before he answered her “call.” The nice adjustment of _time_ to the particular individuality of the person concerned under the correlated circumstances enumerated, was a matter of supreme importance! Then, suddenly, the idea occurred that she might have met with an accident. Instantly he acted! Touching a spring on the golden radio-receptacle on his vest pocket, he caught the released framework in his hand, slipped the catch that allowed it to snap into shape, and quickly adjusted it to his face. Then, choosing his words carefully and sparingly, he spoke into the pendant microphone with an attempted precision to conceal his thick tongue, asking: “This you, Esm’alda?” “Yes, this is me!” she snapped back promptly. “Who did you suppose it was? Have you been giving away any more of these ‘special’ radio sets to any other female? If I catch you playing any tricks on me with any other huzzy, I’ll make you wish that you had never been born! If--”