of the body but of the soul
also--the eyes, the smile, the voice, the movements--all young. Why try
to imitate that miracle? Who could? Who ever had?"

He went on shaking hands, bowing, smiling, laughing, jesting, making
believe himself, but all the while the miracle of the youth and beauty
of Suzanne Dale was running in his mind.

"What are you thinking about, Eugene?" asked Angela, coming to the
window where he had drawn a rocking-chair and was sitting gazing out on
the silver and lavender and gray of the river surface in the fading
light. Some belated gulls were still flying about. Across the river the
great manufactory was sending off a spiral of black smoke from one of
its tall chimneys. Lamps were beginning to twinkle in its
hundred-windowed wall. A great siren cry broke from its whistle as six
o'clock tolled from a neighboring clock tower. It was still late
February and cold.

"Oh, I was thinking of the beauty of this scene," he said wearily.

Angela did not believe it. She was conscious of something, but they
never quarreled about what he was thinking nowadays. They had come too
far along in comfort and solidity. What was it, though, she wondered,
that he was thinking about?

Suzanne Dale had no particular thought of him. He was nice--pleasant,
good-looking. Mrs. Witla was quite nice and young.

"Ma-ma," she said, "did you look out of the window at Mr. Witla's?"

"Yes, my dear!"

"Wasn't that a beautiful view?"

"Charming."

"I should think you might like to live on the Drive sometime, ma-ma."

"We may sometime."

Mrs. Dale fell to musing. Certainly Eugene was an attractive man--young,
brilliant, able. What a mistake all the young men made, marrying so
early. Here he was successful, introduced to society, attractive, the
world really before him, and he was married to someone who, though a
charming little woman, was not up to his possibilities.

"Oh, well," she thought, "so goes the world. Why worry? Everyone must do
the best they can."

Then she thought of a story she might write along this line and get
Eugene to publish it in one of his magazines.

CHAPTER II

While these various events were occurring the work of the United
Magazines Corporation had proceeded apace. By the end of the first year
after Eugene's arrival it had cleared up so many of its editorial and
advertising troubles that he was no longer greatly worried about them,
and by the end of the second year it was well on t