"The Winchester was an ideal place for Eleanor," Beulah wailed. "It's
deadly respectable and middle class, but it was just the kind of
atmosphere for her to accustom herself to. She was learning to manage
herself so prettily. This morning when I went to the studio--I wanted
to get the lessons over early, and take Eleanor to see that exhibition
of Bavarian dolls at Kuhner's--I found her washing up a trail of
dishes in that closet behind the screen--you've seen it,
Gertrude?--like some poor little scullery maid. She said that Jimmie
had made an omelet for breakfast. If he'd made fifty omelets there
couldn't have been a greater assortment of dirty dishes and kettles."

Gertrude smiled.

"Jimmie made an omelet for me once for which he used two dozen eggs.
He kept breaking them until he found the yolks of a color to suit him.
He said pale yolks made poor omelets, so he threw all the pale ones
away."

"I suppose that you sat by and let him," Beulah said. "You would let
Jimmie do anything. You're as bad as Margaret is about David."

"Or as bad as you are about Peter."

"There we go, just like any silly, brainless girls, whose chief object
in life is the--the other sex," Beulah cried inconsistently. "Oh! I
hate that kind of thing."

"So do I--in theory--" Gertrude answered, a little dreamily. "Where do
Jimmie and Eleanor get the rest of their meals?"

"I can't seem to find out," Beulah said. "I asked Eleanor point-blank
this morning what they had to eat last night and where they had it,
and she said, 'That's a secret, Aunt Beulah.' When I asked her why it
was a secret and who it was a secret with, she only looked worried,
and said she guessed she wouldn't talk about it at all because that
was the only way to be safe about tattling. You know what I think--I
think Jimmie is taking her around to the cafes and all the shady
extravagant restaurants. He thinks it's sport and it keeps him from
getting bored with the child."

"Well, that's one way of educating the young," Gertrude said, "but I
think you are wrong, Beulah."

CHAPTER VII

ONE DESCENT INTO BOHEMIA

"Aunt Beulah does not think that Uncle Jimmie is bringing me up
right," Eleanor confided to the pages of her diary. "She comes down
here and is very uncomforterble. Well he is bringing me up good, in
some ways better than she did. When he swears he always puts out his
hand for me to slap him. He had enough to swear of. He can't get any
work or earn wages