ers are poor. At Max's the soup is always cold. The mural
decorations at the Prince Eitel are so gloomy they give you a chill.

Despair settles down on the scene. There seems to be no likelihood
that there will be any dinner at all anywhere. In the absence,
however, of that kind of good cheer, another kind is spread on the
table when the inquiry is flung down whether or not the way in which
Jim looked at Dora last night has been generally observed.

You conclude that poor, dear, innocent Dora ought not to have been
looked at in that way. You were hasty. Nobody is innocent in the
Mandarin Tea Room of the St. DuBarry, when not there. Dora, you soon
learn, deserves to be looked at in any and all ways. It's not for her
that we're worried. It's for Jim.

At the name of Jim, Margaret begins to look uncomfortable and
helpless. She sinks lower and lower into her chair; and says nothing;
and keeps on saying nothing; and seems likely to drown in silence; but
her friends start in to rescue her. You can't help seeing some of the
life-lines as they are thrown out.

"If I were _you_, Margaret, and _my_ husband behaved to _me_ as Jim is
behaving to _you_, _I'd_----"

"When you married Jim, Margaret, you were the prettiest----"

"No wonder Dora's husband divorced her."

"It's a wonder she wouldn't confine herself to making trouble for her
own husbands without----"

"The trouble with you, Margaret, is that you're too good to Jim,
letting him run around with Dora and not doing anything yourself. If
you had any sense you'd make him so jealous he'd walk on his hands
and hold a loaf of sugar on his nose for you."

"Say, Fannie, why don't you tell your friend Ned to cut in here and
pay a little attention to Marge?"

"Oh, Ned's no good."

"Well, then, I'll tell my husband to----"

"Don't you do it! I started my husband once on a thing like that and
he went at it so strong--Choose a bachelor."

"That's right. Ned's not married. Let him do it."

"Somebody ought to."

"Say, Fannie, call Ned on the 'phone."

"All right. I'll be back in a minute."

"Say, Marge, we'll eat at the Royal Gorge and I'll put you and Ned
side by side."

"And _I'll_ sit next to your husband and tell him how strong Ned is
with the ladies. He'll take a good look all right."

"Now buck up, Marge, and encourage Ned a little. Don't be a fool."

"I tell you, Marge, you'll do a lot more with Jim by cutting up a
little bit than by all this dieting you're