t tremendously
relieved. It was not only that she liked the man, he was besides her
only hope, the one who could bring friends to her. "Women friends!
That's what I need!" All this was so unsafe at times. Her husband's
business, his two sides, Fanny Carr and her scheming, Dwight and his
blue, twinkling eyes, Mrs. Grewe and her smiling good-fellowship--were
all very nice and exciting. But safe? Oh, by no means!

But today as Ethel walked on through the Park, she smiled to herself
expectantly. For Dwight had promised the next week to bring Sally
Crothers to see her. "If only I can get on with her! She's my kind--I
know she is--she's just exactly what I want. I don't want to be
anything wild--not Mrs. Grewe nor Fanny Carr. I want to be myself,
that's all, and happy with my husband!"

She turned abruptly toward her home. "In the meantime I am going back
to give the baby his bath," she thought. She glanced at the watch on
her gloved wrist. And a man who looked like a detective, or a villain
in the "movies," looked after her in an envious way.

"Who's her date with!" he wondered.

CHAPTER XXI

The days dragged by. She had anxious times. What would Sally Crothers
be like? "And what in the world will she think of me? If she doesn't
like me--very much--the very first time, I'll have lost my chance. For
she's busy, her life is full of things--planning gardens and running
about with her friends. And she won't so much as bother her head!"
Ethel felt a dismal sinking. In vain she strove to assure herself.
Joe, Nourse and then Dwight, one after the other, had all bowed down
before her. "Oh, that was very simple!" she thought. "They're only
men!" It would be a woman this time, and one of the most brilliant kind.
"What a dull little fool she'll find me, in spite of all I do or say!"
It would be all the more difficult because Mrs. Crothers was older.
"That will count against me. No doubt she's beginning to show her age;
and I'm young, and she doesn't want any young things to come snooping
about her husband! Then there's Amy and the quarrel they had, and
she'll put me and Amy in the same class! I'll have all that to fight
against!" The idea of settling everything all in one brief encounter.
Oh, it was too maddening!

"Now, Ethel Lanier, for goodness' sake stop fidgeting like a nervous old
maid! This isn't the minister coming to call!"

On the day before the expected call, Ethel was just on the point of
going out for the af