"My dear boy, society is the hardest work in the world. I'm simply dragged to a frazzle by the end of the season. Besides, there is all my war work and my clubs and my charities. And I've just promised to take an advanced course in domestic science." "I see," Steve said, meekly. "I think it is the duty of rich women to know all about frying things as well as eating them," she said, as she took a third caramel. "Quite true. Having money isn't always keeping it" "Oh, papa has loads of money--enough for all of us," she remarked, easily. "It isn't that. I'd never cook if I were poor, anyway; that would be the last thing I'd ever dream of doing. It's fun to go to the domestic-science class as long as all my set go. Well--will you be a nice angel-man and stay home to amuse your fractious wife?" "I'll call Miss Faithful on the phone and say I'm going to play hooky," he consented. "By the way, you must come down to the office and say hello to her when you get the time." Beatrice kissed him. "Must I? I hate offices. Besides, Gaylord has married your prettiest clerk, and there will be no one to play with me except my husband." "Funny thing--that marriage," Steve commented. "If it was any one but Gay I'd send condolences for loading the office nuisance onto him." "Wasn't she any use at all?" she asked, curiously. "None--always having a headache and being excused for the day. That was the only thing I ever questioned in Mary Faithful--why she engaged Trudy and took her into her own home as a boarder." "Oh, so Mary isn't perfection? Don't be too hard on the other girl. I'd be quite as useless if I ever had to work. I'd do just the same--have as many headaches as the firm would stand for, and marry the first man who asked me." "But think of marrying Gay!" "Poor old Gay--his father was a dear, and he is terribly well behaved. Besides, see how obliging he is. Your Miss Faithful refused to help me out, and Gay ran his legs off to get everything I wanted. I'll never be rude to Gay as long as he amuses me." "That's the thing that leads them all, isn't it, princess?" CHAPTER VI After the first round of excessively formal entertainments for Mr. and Mrs. O'Valley, Steve found a mental hunger suddenly asserting itself. It was as if a farm hand were asked to subsist upon a diet of weak tea and wafers. In the first place, no masculine mind can quite admit the superiority of a feminine mind when it concerns handling said masculine mind's business affairs. Though Steve insisted that Mary had done quite as well as he would have done, he told himself secretly that he must get down to hard work and go over the letters and memoranda which had developed during his absence. With quiet amusement Mary had agreed to the investigation, watching him prowl among the files with the same tolerant attitude she would have entertained toward Luke had he insisted that he could run the household more efficiently than a mere sister.