“I didn’t want to stand in the way of your work, Douglas. I could afford to make a few sacrifices, after all you’d done for me.” “Never mind. Just as soon as I can break away from Washington we’ll have a good long holiday. If Congress doesn’t hang on till Summer, perhaps we can take a little trip abroad. We’ll go to Scotland and hunt up those people of yours that your father was always talking about. Then we’ll run over to Paris and perhaps see a bit of Switzerland. We’ll send the children with Miss Munroe to Waverly and then we’ll pretend we’re on our honeymoon again. You need the rest and the change as much as I do, dear--more. We’ll forget about everything that has bothered us since we began to be prosperous. We’ll be boy and girl again, Helen. Why, we haven’t grown a day older since we were married--in our feelings, I mean--and to me you’re just as young and as pretty as you were that afternoon in your father’s study when I told you I couldn’t get along without you.” She had allowed her head to rest on his shoulder. “Douglas!” she whispered. “Don’t be so silly.” He bent forward and kissed her on the forehead. “And do you remember what you said when I told you that?” “What did I say?” she asked, with a smile. “You said you’d rather be poor with me than the richest woman in the world without me. You were a very romantic little girl in those days, weren’t you? And then I made up my mind to make a great place for you. That’s the only real happiness that has come out of my luck here, Helen--seeing you respected and admired by these great people in Washington, the famous men we used to talk about and wonder if we’d ever know.” He stopped; then he went on, in a lower voice: “Some of them I know a little too well now. Oh, ho!” he sighed, “I’m afraid I’m growing pessimistic. It can’t be I’m getting old without realizing it. See these two lines that are coming on my forehead. They grow deeper and deeper with every session of Congress.” “They’ll go away when you take your vacation, Douglas,” she said, reassuringly. “And you haven’t a line in your face, dear,” he said, looking at her with a husband’s proprietary pride. She shook her head. “Oh, yes, around the eyes. They’re plain enough when I’m tired.”