'don't reckon nowt' to our combined appetites, so
I hope Fletcher will make up for our shortcomings."

He sat down in the low window seat, not far from Toni, and with a smile
asked permission to smoke.

"Of course--please do." She spoke indifferently.

"Your husband isn't an inveterate smoker--like me?" He lighted a
cigarette gratefully. "I thought most literary men were slaves to
tobacco."

"I think Owen smokes a good deal," she said. "And especially now that he
is working so hard. Miss Loder is quite shocked at his cigarettes."

"Miss Loder?" The question slipped out before he had time to reflect.

"My husband's secretary." She broke off abruptly, as though unwilling to
say more. Then a great flood of bitterness rolled over her spirit, at
the memory of her own failure; and mingled with it came a sore envy and
distrust of the clear-eyed, capable woman who had supplanted her.
Together, the two proved irresistible; and with an almost child-like
instinct to confide in the man whom she felt to be trustworthy, Toni
turned to Herrick and poured forth her sad little story of
disappointment and bitter disillusionment.

Out it all came, her desire to help her husband, and the dread awakening
to the fact of her own incompetency. Herrick, listening, realized, as
perhaps Owen could not have done, what a blow to Toni's hopes the
failure of the experiment had been; and remembering her earlier
confidences, when she had appealed to him to reverse the judgment passed
upon her by two cruel women, he began to wonder whether Toni would ever
find any happiness in the life which had once looked so glorious to her
youthful eyes.

He said very little till she had finished, though now and again, a quiet
question made clear some point involved by her own incoherency; and from
the bottom of his heart he pitied the girl who was beginning to realize
that though she might be the wife of the man she loved, she would never
be his real companion and helpmate until she could attain something
nearer to the high standard of perfection for which he looked.

"This Miss Loder--you like her?"

"I believe--sometimes--I almost hate her," said Toni drearily. "She is
everything I am not, you see. She is clever, well-educated, amusing. I
think I hate women who tell amusing stories," she added vindictively,
biting her lip with her strong little teeth.

"But she is not personally objectionable to you?" Herrick wished to
hear, if possible, how she trea