on came up every spring,
the first warm days of March, when Bragdon developed fag and headaches.
Then it was he would suggest "chucking the whole thing," but that
obviously, with their present way of living, they could not do. So it
resolved itself into a discussion of boarding-places. It had to be some
place near enough the city to permit of Bragdon's going to his office at
least three or four times a week. One summer they boarded at an inferior
hotel on Long Island. That had been unsatisfactory because of the food
and the people. Another summer they took a furnished cottage, in
Connecticut. That had been hot, and Milly found housekeeping throughout
the year burdensome--and it may be added expensive. As the third summer
approached, Bragdon talked of staying in the city until midsummer. Milly
and the child could go to the Maine coast with the Fredericks, and he
would join them for a few weeks in August. Milly accepted this
compromise as a happy solution and looked forward to a really cool and
restful summer.

While she was making her arrangements, there was a threatened upheaval
in their life. This time it was the magazine. There had been growing
friction in _Bunker's_ for some time. The magazine, having to maintain
its reputation, had become more and more radical, while the proprietor,
under the influence of prosperity and increasing years, had become more
conservative.

"You see," Hazel Fredericks explained, "the Bunkers find reform isn't
fashionable the farther up they get, and the magazine is committed to
reform and so is Billman. There must be a break some day."

She further hinted that if it had not been for Grace's strong hand, the
break would have already come.

"She's not ready for Montie to get out, yet," she said.

Milly was much interested in the intrigue, but she could learn little
from her husband, who always expressed a weary disgust with the topic.
One evening in early June, just before her departure, he told her that
_Bunker's_ had changed hands: a "syndicate" had bought it, and he
professed not to know whose money was in the syndicate. Hazel hinted
that Grace Billman knew....

Bragdon seemed more than usually fagged this spring, after his annual
attack of the grippe. He had not recovered quickly, and his face was
white and flabby, as the faces of city men commonly were in the spring.
Milly noticed the languor in his manner when he came to the train to see
her off for the summer.

"Do be carefu