ep into Roger's imagination with suggestions of the many hands that
had worn them through the centuries, of women kneeling in old churches,
couples in dark crooked streets, adventures, love, hate, jealousy. Youth
and fire, dreams and passion....

At last he remembered why he was here. He thought of possible purchasers.
He knew so many dealers, but he knew, too, that the war had played the
devil with them as with everyone else. Still, he thought of several who
would find it hard to resist the temptation. He would see them to-morrow,
one by one, and get them bidding, haggling. Roger frowned disgustedly.

No help for it, though, and it was a relief. It would bring a truce in his
house for a time.

* * * * *

But the truce was brief.

On the afternoon when he sold his collection Roger came home all out of
sorts. He had been forced to haggle long; it had been a mean inglorious
day; one of the brightest paths in his life had ended in a pigstie. But at
least he had bought some peace in his home! Women, women, women! He shut
the front door with a slam and went up to his room for a little rest, a
little of what he had paid for! On the stairs he passed young Betsy, and he
startled the girl by the sudden glare of reproach he bestowed upon her.
Savagely he told himself he was no "feminist" that night!

The brief talk he had with Edith was far from reassuring. With no Deborah
there to wound her pride, Edith quickly showed herself friendly to her
father; but when he advised her to keep her nurse, she at once refused to
consider it.

"I want you to," he persisted, with an anxious note in his voice. He had
tried life without Hannah here and he did not care to try it again.

"It is already settled, father, I sent her away this morning."

"Then you get her right back!" he exclaimed. But Edith's face grew
obstinate.

"I don't care to give Deborah," she replied, "another chance to talk as she
did."

Roger looked at her gloomily. "You will, though," he was thinking. "You two
have only just begun. Let any little point arise, which a couple of men
would settle offhand, and you two will get together and go it! There'll be
no living in the house!"

With deepening displeasure he watched the struggle between them go on.
Sometimes it seemed to Roger there was not a topic he could bring up which
would not in some way bring on a clash. One night in desperation he
proposed the theatre.

"I'm afraid we ca