While waiting for the man to come for them, the two young salesladies wondered if their customer would leave without an order, or word of encouragement regarding the future of her boudoir. On the elevator going down, Mrs. Courtney said: "When you have time to come to my address and look at the suite, just let me know by telephone and I will make it a point to be at home to meet you, to go into the work in earnest. I am confident you can give the right atmosphere to my boudoir." Just as the elevator reached the ground floor, Mrs. Courtney handed Polly and Eleanor each a card upon which she wrote her private telephone number. "Now, good-morning, my friends. Remember what I said to you about having chosen the right pathway, for the present. You will make all the better wives and mothers for having had a genuine business experience. How superior is your ideal to those of empty-headed society misses who live but to dance or drink or waste their true substance." With such praise of their endeavors, the lady left Polly and Eleanor; and they stood where she left them, holding her cards in their hands, but still gazing at the revolving doors through which she had passed and then disappeared. CHAPTER XVII BUSINESS Ruth and Dodo had been sadly neglected during the Christmas Season, but after Paul returned to Denver and Tom accepted his verdict that Polly would give no valuable thought to lovers for the next two years, the two young decorators took time to encourage their younger partners in the work they had chosen. Ruth and Dodo were not as deeply in earnest as Polly and Eleanor had been in applying themselves to the studies given at Cooper Union; they considered themselves martyrs to the cause of womanly work. Mr. Fabian often sighed in despair over Dodo's ideals in ancient architecture, or Ruth's recitations of applied designs. Polly and Eleanor laughed at these trials of teacher and student and kept urging both sides not to lose faith but to keep on until they won the prize. Meanwhile, the two advanced students visited every exhibit or lecture given on their beloved work, and thus acquired more of the idealistic experiences in art. For business application of their understanding of decorating, Mrs. Courtney supplied one channel of such testing; and Mr. Dalken offered another outlet for their wisdom, for he had decided to erect a magnificent office building on upper Fifth Avenue, and keep the entire top floor as a private apartment for himself. The girls had many interesting mornings in Mrs. Courtney's home, listening to her accounts of trips to every country in quest of curios and antiques. Her residence was filled with the results of her travels, and her memory teemed with thrilling stories of adventure for the rare and beautiful trophies she secured.