dee had
made no fortune in oil, though he talked in terms of millions. In a
burst of temporary prosperity, due to a boom in some oil-stocks Sam
Pardee had purchased early in the game, they had paid five thousand
dollars down on the house and lot. That left a bare thousand to pay.
There were three good meals a day. Milly Pardee belonged to the Okoochee
Woman's Thursday Club. All the women in Okoochee seemed to have come
from St. Louis, Columbus, Omaha, Cleveland, Kansas City, and they spoke
of these as Back East. When they came calling they left cards,
punctiliously. They played bridge, observing all the newest rulings, and
speaking with great elaborateness of manner.

"Yours, I believe, Mrs. Tutwiler."

"Pardon, but didn't you notice I played the ace?"

Maxine graduated in white, with a sash. Mrs. Pardee was on the committee
to beautify the grounds around the M. K. & T. railroad station. When
relatives from Back East (meaning Nebraska, Kansas, or Missouri) visited
an Okoocheeite cards were sent out for an "At Home," and everything was
as formal as a court levee in Victoria's time. Mrs. Pardee began to talk
of buying an automobile. The town was full of them. There were the
flivvers and lower middle-class cars owned by small merchants, natives
(any one boasting twelve year's residence) and unsuccessful adventurers
of the Sam Pardee type. Then there were the big, high-powered scouting
cars driven by steely-eyed, wiry, cold-blooded young men from
Pennsylvania and New York. These young men had no women-folk with them.
Held conferences in smoke-filled rooms at the Okmulgee Hotel. The main
business street was called Broadway, and the curb on either side was
hidden by lines of cars drawn up slantwise at an angle of ninety. No
farmer wagons. A small town with all the airs of a big one; with none of
the charming informality of the old Southern small town; none of the
engaging ruggedness of the established Middle-Western town; none of the
faded gentility of the old New England town. A strident dame, this, in
red satin and diamonds, insisting that she is a lady. Interesting,
withal, and bulging with personality and possibility.

Milly Pardee loved it. She belonged. She was chairman of this committee
and secretary of that. Okoochee was always having parades, with floats,
sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Okoochee and distinguished by
schoolgirls grouped on bunting-covered motor trucks, their hair loose
and lately relieved