iew, however sensible a solution of
her own problem it might be. She had confessed herself without ambition
and "aim," as Hazel would put it; had no social sense or wish "to be
Somebody," as Mrs. Billman would put it. She had become just plain Mrs.
Nobody. Of course she could not entertain in any but the most informal,
simple fashion as she entertained the men who came to the house, and
women find no distinction in that sort of hospitality and do not like to
offer it. All this Milly realized more and more, as any woman would
have, when the house had settled into its groove. She bravely put the
thoughts aside, although they rankled and later manifested themselves,
as such things must. For the first time her own sex dropped Milly, and
it cut.

Meantime there was much that was pleasant and comforting in her new life
in pretty little "number 236," and Milly got what joy there was out of
Virginia's delight in having a real home and Ernestine's beaming
happiness all the time she was in the house. The little girl could
return now to that "very nice school" where other nice little girls
went. She departed every morning beside the Laundryman, tugging at her
arm, skipping and chattering like a blackbird in June. Ernestine saw her
safely up the school steps and then took the car to her business. Milly,
after the housekeeping and her morning duties, walked up town for her
daughter and spent most of the afternoons with her, as she had not much
else to do. She had suggested at the beginning helping Ernestine in some
way in the business, but the Laundryman had not encouraged that. In
fact, she showed a curious reluctance in even having Milly visit the
office or call for her there.

"It ain't any place for you, dearie," she said. "You just stick to your
end of the business, the house--and that's enough."

Milly paid much more attention to the details of their simple
housekeeping than she had ever cared to do for herself and Jack. It may
have been from a sense of obligation in spending Ernestine's money, for
after all the Laundryman was not her legal husband. Or it may have been
due to the fact that Ernestine, being another woman, knew and could not
be easily bluffed with, "Everybody does that," "You can't get along with
less and live, anyhow," etc., as a mere man could. Nor did she like to
wheedle a woman. Whatever the cause, Milly gave up her lazy habit of
telephoning to the dearest stores for supplies or letting the servants
do th