le's neighbour said to herself that Caroline would
soon be too big for her boots, there remained a slight glow of
satisfaction in being acknowledged as an old acquaintance while an
affluent person from a car was kept waiting. It is therefore not
surprising that Wilfred Ball felt the same glow greatly intensified
when he strolled up to the pay-box, twirling his walking-stick, to take
his stand near by as the future proprietor of the girl inside. Perhaps
the young husband of a great prima donna may feel nearly as
sophisticated and proud and "in it" when he strolls carelessly into the
dressing-room where the bouquets of admirers overflow upon the
floor--but this is scarcely likely, for he would not have the morning
freshness still on him of a life spent so far between Thorhaven and
Flodmouth.

Every now and then he took a little walk up and down the promenade,
either alone or with a casual acquaintance, but he soon returned to
enjoy close at hand this epoch-making evening. For now, he felt, there
was nothing that could keep the Wilfred Balls back from those pinnacles
of affluence which a combination of the more easily assimilated comic
papers and articles on Self-Help had enabled him to envisage: Self-Help
kind showing how a poor man might grow rich, and the comic papers how
he might spend his money when he got it.

As the wife of a wealthy man, Caroline would be All Right. He had had
his doubts before, at times, because he really felt it was a come-down
for a young fellow in a seed-merchant's office to be engaged to a
servant. And remorse had something to do now with his ardour, because
he really had begun to wonder if he could "keep on" with it, when
Caroline was a true servant, living in, like the little maids all up
and down the new streets. He had seen himself standing at a corner
waiting for her under a lamp-post on her nights out, and had found his
faithfulness wavering.

Still, she was Caroline--and they had "gone together" ever since the
time when he first perceived that a "girl" was as necessary to man's
estate as a dressy lounge suit and a Homburg hat. He did not like to
behave badly to her. And now he had been rewarded. He had achieved
the difficult feat mentioned in those articles he so casually read in
the train, of keeping one eye on the main chance and the other on the
example of Sir Galahad. Now he was still engaged to somebody who took
tickets on the prom. and was a young lady--and was yet Ca