“There was an application yesterday in behalf of a desperately needy old fellow, but what hair he has left is red, and Mrs. Gritts put her foot down. He simply did not fit into her scheme of the pictorial effect. All of our people have that silvery, well-bred-pensioner look.” “But where does your fun come in?” I asked, with real curiosity. “Oh, I don’t know. I inherited a lot of charities from my mother. Here’s Ammerlin’s. Will you wait for me? I shall only be a moment.” “More socks?” “No,—some new curtains for the Directors’ room at the Littlewick Hospital. You must wait. I haven’t seen anything of you, and you will be running back to New York. You might as well wait here. I know how men _hate_ these stores.” “If you insist upon my not going with you—” It was thus that I happened to be sitting in the hansom when Dick Fentley came hustling up the street. “Hello, old man!” he shouted. “What the deuce are you doing here?” “Waiting for your wife,” I answered. “Just like her,” he returned to this. “Where is she taking you?” “I haven’t the least idea,” I replied. “I fancy nowhere in particular, but I am not sure. Do you think it would be right for me to ask her?” Dick laughed. “You’re safe! But if she tries to spring any infirmaries or kindergartens on you, just bolt. Tell her I said she was to fetch you home to dinner. Making you comfortable at the club?” and Dick was off up the street just as Mrs. Fentley came out of Ammerlin’s. “Do you know,” I said as I followed her into the hansom again, “it scarcely seems as if you had had time to transact very much business.” “I didn’t give you time to become impatient, did I?” “No; I passed the sixty seconds very pleasantly with your husband.” “The idea! Dick passed here? That means that he is going to spend the afternoon with Bob Haverton somewhere.” [Illustration] “Isn’t Bob proper?” “Sometimes. I fancy Dick gets most of his stories from Bob?” “Aren’t they proper?” “Sometimes. Oh, Bob is a very handsome fellow. He was in the navy at one time. He was an Ensign—what they call an Insect in the navy. Then his father died and left him a lot of money. Now he is occupied with the problem as to which girl he will let have him.” “I suppose they all want him?” “Naturally. Whoever gets him will have a dreadful time. He is very handsome.” “I have known cases—” I began. “Yes, but the chances will all be against her. A really handsome man like Bob simply invites disaster. It is not at all the same with a handsome woman. The whole mechanism of society is constructed with a view to watching the handsome woman,—relatives, neighbors, other women in general all watch her. But there is no one to watch the handsome man but his wife.” “I can see,” I said, “how that might be too much for one woman. And yet I can see chances for assistance from other women.”