ks had only lived
up in the West 70's for four or five years, and before that----

"Well, you know," says Vee, archin' her eyebrows expressive, "on the
East Side somewhere."

You see, Father had been comin' strong in business of late,--antiques
and house decoratin'. I remember havin' seen the name over the door of
his big Fifth-ave. shop,--Leo Ull. You know there's about five hundred
per cent, profit in that game when you get it goin', and while Pa Ull
might have started small, in an East 14th Street basement, with livin'
rooms in the rear, he kept branchin' out,--gettin' to Fourth-ave., and
fin'lly to Fifth, jumpin' from a flat to an apartment, and from that to
a reg'lar house.

So the two boys went to college, and later on little Doris, with long
braids down her back and weeps in her eyes, is sent off to a girls'
boardin' school. By the time her turn came too, the annual income was
runnin' into six figures. Besides, Doris was the pet. And when Pa and Ma
Ull sat down to pick out a young ladies' culture fact'ry for her the
process was simple. They discarded all but three of the catalogues,
savin' them that was printed on the thickest paper and havin' the most
halftone pictures, and then put the tag on the one where the rates was
highest. Near Washington, I think it was; anyway, somewhere
South,--board and tuition, two thousand dollars and up; everything
extra, from lead pencils to lessons in court etiquette; and the young
ladies limited to ten new evenin' dresses a term.

Maybe you've seen products of such exclusive establishments? And if you
have perhaps you can frame up a faint picture of what Doris was like
after four years at Hetherington Hall and a five months' trip abroad
chaperoned by the Baroness Parcheezi. No wonder she didn't find home a
happy spot after that!

"Her brothers are quite nice, I believe," says Vee. "They're both
married, though. Mr. Ull is not so bad, either,--a little crude perhaps;
but he has learned to wear a frock coat in the shop and not to talk to
lady customers when he has a cigar between his teeth. But Mrs.
Ull--well, she hasn't kept up, that's all."

"Still on East 14th Street, eh?" says I.

Vee admits that nearly states the case. "And of course," she goes on,
"she doesn't understand Doris. They don't get on at all well. So when
Doris told me how lonely and unhappy she was at home and begged me to
visit her for a week in return--well, what could I do? I'm going back
with her Mon