wife, to go without the sweet things of--"

"You needn't bring me in," said Eveley loftily. "I have never accepted
you, have I?"

"No, not exactly, I suppose, but--"

"Eveley," said Miriam, suddenly sitting erect on the couch. "I have it."

"Sounds like the measles," said Kitty.

"I mean I know what to do with the money. Listen, dear. You do not want
to go on slaving in an office until you are old and ugly. And Nolan is
quite right, you certainly can not marry a grubby clerk in a law office."

Nolan laughed at that, but Eveley sat up very straight indeed and fairly
glowered at her unconscious friend on the couch.

"You must have the soft and lovely things of life, and the way to get
them is to marry them. Now, sweet, you take your twenty-five hundred, be
manicured and massaged and shampooed until you are glowing with beauty,
buy a lot of lovely clothes, trip around like a lady, dance and play, and
meet men--men with money--and there you are. You can look like a million
dollars on your twenty-five hundred--and your looks will get you the
million by marriage."

"Miriam Landis, that is shameful," said Nolan in a voice of horror. "It
is disgraceful. I never thought to hear a woman, a married woman, a nice
woman, utter such low and grimy thoughts. Could any such marriage be
happy?"

"Well, Nolan," said Miriam sadly, "I am not sure that any marriage can be
happy, or was ever supposed to be. But women are such that they have to
try it once. Eveley will be like all the rest. And if she has to try it,
she had better try it with a million, than with eighteen hundred a year."

"There is something in that, Miriam, certainly," said Eveley
thoughtfully. "What do you think, Eileen?"

"I think it is absurd. The notion that woman was born for marriage died
long ago. Ridiculous! Woman is born for life, for service, for action,
just as man is. Look at the married people you know. How many of them are
happy? I do not wish to be personal, but I know very few married people,
either men or women, who would not be glad to undo the marriage knot if
it could be done easily and quietly without notoriety. They are not
happy. But we are happy. Why? Because we work, we think, we feel, we
live. We are not slaves to the contentment of man. Go on working, my
dear. Keep your independence. But play safe. Put your money in the bank,
or in some good investment, and let it safeguard your future. Then you
can go your way serene."

"That is cert