"I wish that I could make up for my brutality," said Dick. "How can I, Lena? I feel like the fellow that threw a catsup bottle at his wife's head at the breakfast-table and then felt so badly when he saw the nasty stuff trickling down her pretty curls that he brought her home a pair of diamond earrings for dinner." "What a horrid vulgar story!" exclaimed Lena. "Isn't it?" Dick rejoined. "But vulgar things are frequently true, as we learn with sorrow. Lena, can't we believe that our marriage certificate had an affection insurance policy given with it? Don't let us indulge in little quarrels. As you say, they are vulgar. I want love to be not only a rich solid pudding full of plums, but I want it to have a meringue on top." As he hoped, this made Lena laugh, and she pulled out her over-scented handkerchief to wipe her eyes. Dick shut his lips tightly, grown too wise to speak. CHAPTER XVI LENA'S FRIENDS Lena sat one morning behind the coffee-urn so self-absorbed and smiling that Dick wondered. "Mrs. Percival," he remonstrated, "you have a husband at this end of the table. Have you forgotten it? What are you thinking about?" "Dick, I believe I have found a friend--a real friend," Lena jerked out. "A good many of them, I should say. Who is this fortunate person?" "Mrs. Appleton." "Mrs. Appleton!" Dick gulped at his coffee and stared at his wife in some perplexity. "Isn't she a--well, for one thing, a good deal older than you?" "She'll be all the better guide," Lena retorted with one of her demure pouts. "You know she invited me to join the class she has gotten up for Swami Ram Juna. You needn't grin in that horrid way, Dick. I shall be so wise very soon that you'll be afraid of me." "Heaven forbid, you dear little inspirer of awe." "At any rate, she's taken the greatest fancy to me, and I to her. She came here yesterday in the pouring rain, and we spent a long afternoon talking together. We feel the same way about everything. She says that with my beauty, I ought to make a great hit, and she's going to give a big reception in my honor. Of course, with her experience, she can be a great help to me." "I see." Dick forgot his breakfast entirely, and meditated. "What is Mr. Appleton like?" Lena persisted. "He has enough money to make me pale my ineffectual fires, and he adds to that the personality of the great American desert. But I suspect his wife is so wholly satisfied with the golden glow that the latter fact has never penetrated to her consciousness. I think Mrs. Appleton has not yet recovered from her astonishment at finding herself wedded to profusion. It appears to delight her afresh from day to day." "You can be very nasty about people when you choose." Lena's tone was unmistakably vexed.