Milly had forgotten all about the loss of the pastry-cook and the business in her surprise at meeting Edgar Duncan again and all the memories he had revived. "All right!" she said promptly. "Do it." "Give up the business?" Ernestine asked in amazement. She could not believe Milly meant to take her testy remark seriously. What had come over Milly! "We might try it in Pasadena," Milly remarked after a time. "There are a lot of rich people out there." This went beyond the bounds of Ernestine's patience. "Pasadena!... Last time it was Palm Beach, and before that it was Newport. What's the matter with staying right here and making good?" Milly did not reply. Ernestine's pent-up irritation overflowed still more. "You ain't any business woman, Milly!" "I never said I was." "You always want to get in some society work--social pull! Rich folks!" Ernestine groaned with disgust. "That kind of furor don't last. They're too flighty in their notions." "Like me," Milly interposed bitterly. "Well, it ain't business to quit." "Oh, business!" Milly exclaimed disgustedly. She felt like an artist whose great work has been scorned by the philistines. "Yes, business!" Ernestine asserted hotly. "If you're going into business, you've got to play the game and play it _hard_ all the time, too. Or you'd better marry and do the other thing." "Perhaps I'll marry," Milly retorted with an enigmatical smile. Ernestine stared at her agape. Was that what was the trouble with Milly? She had not meant to go so far. VII CAPITULATIONS They found another pastry-cook,--a French-Canadian woman. But if her ancestors had ever seen the Isle de France, it must have been centuries ago, and the family had become fatally corrupted since by British gastronomic ideals. Her pastry was thicker and heavier than Paul's worst, and she had "no more imagination than a cow" according to Milly. How could one make fine cakes without imagination? "They make better ones at the Auditorium Hotel even," Milly observed disgustedly. The Cake Shop had gone down another peg. Now it served afternoon tea with English wafers instead of the exotic "sirops" and "liqueurs," and advertised "Dainty Luncheons for Suburban Shoppers." (That was Ernestine's phrasing.) Milly almost never went near the place, and acted as if she wanted to forget it altogether. In her efforts to revive her partner's waning interest Ernestine even suggested Milly's going again to Paris to engage a fresh crew, but Milly only shrugged her shoulders. "What's the use? You know we haven't the money." "Borrow it!" Ernestine said desperately.