n it!"

The grimness of Gunch's voice, the hardness of his jaw, disconcerted
Babbitt, but he recovered and went on till they looked bored, then
irritated, then as doubtful as Gunch.

II

He thought of Tanis always. With a stir he remembered her every aspect.
His arms yearned for her. "I've found her! I've dreamed of her all these
years and now I've found her!" he exulted. He met her at the movies
in the morning; he drove out to her flat in the late afternoon or on
evenings when he was believed to be at the Elks. He knew her financial
affairs and advised her about them, while she lamented her feminine
ignorance, and praised his masterfulness, and proved to know much more
about bonds than he did. They had remembrances, and laughter over old
times. Once they quarreled, and he raged that she was as "bossy" as
his wife and far more whining when he was inattentive. But that passed
safely.

Their high hour was a tramp on a ringing December afternoon, through
snow-drifted meadows down to the icy Chaloosa River. She was exotic
in an astrachan cap and a short beaver coat; she slid on the ice and
shouted, and he panted after her, rotund with laughter.... Myra Babbitt
never slid on the ice.

He was afraid that they would be seen together. In Zenith it is
impossible to lunch with a neighbor's wife without the fact being
known, before nightfall, in every house in your circle. But Tanis was
beautifully discreet. However appealingly she might turn to him when
they were alone, she was gravely detached when they were abroad, and he
hoped that she would be taken for a client. Orville Jones once saw them
emerging from a movie theater, and Babbitt bumbled, "Let me make you
'quainted with Mrs. Judique. Now here's a lady who knows the right
broker to come to, Orvy!" Mr. Jones, though he was a man censorious of
morals and of laundry machinery, seemed satisfied.

His predominant fear--not from any especial fondness for her but from
the habit of propriety--was that his wife would learn of the affair. He
was certain that she knew nothing specific about Tanis, but he was also
certain that she suspected something indefinite. For years she had been
bored by anything more affectionate than a farewell kiss, yet she was
hurt by any slackening in his irritable periodic interest, and now he
had no interest; rather, a revulsion. He was completely faithful--to
Tanis. He was distressed by the sight of his wife's slack plumpness, by
her puffs and b