[_Sitting in the chair._

JINNY. Day before yesterday. The eleventh Tuesday since our marriage.
Have you been in town all day? I _am_ glad to see you!

[_She sits on the arm of the chair with her arm about her mother._

MRS. TILLMAN. Yes, and I told your father to meet me here and we'd take
the six-thirty train from Long Island City.

JINNY. Jack and I are going to the theatre to-night.

MRS. TILLMAN. I thought they were all closed!

JINNY. Oh, no, there are several musical comedies on,--Jack's favorite
form of amusement,--and I've bought the tickets myself for a sort of
birthday party.

MRS. TILLMAN. Is it his birthday?

JINNY. No, that's only my excuse!

MRS. TILLMAN. [_Laughing._] Had we dreamed you and Jack were coming home
in June, your father and I wouldn't have gone into the country so early.

JINNY. We've been home two weeks and it hasn't been hot yet.

MRS. TILLMAN. And you're still ideally happy aren't you, darling?

JINNY. Yes--

[_She rises and goes to a table near the centre of the room and looks
at the titles of several books without realizing what they are._

MRS. TILLMAN. Why, Jinny,--what does that mean?

JINNY. Oh, it's all my horrid disposition!

MRS. TILLMAN. Been seeing green?

JINNY. Um! Um! Once in Rome, and on the steamer, and again since we've
been back.

MRS. TILLMAN. Nothing serious?

JINNY. [_Hesitatingly, she turns and faces her mother._] No--but the
last time Jack was harder to bring around than before, and he looked at
me for fully five minutes without a particle of love in his eyes, and
they were almost--_dead_ eyes!

MRS. TILLMAN. What was it all about?

JINNY. Ruth Chester, principally.

MRS. TILLMAN. Why Ruth?

JINNY. Well, the first real scene I made was in Rome in the Vatican. I
was jealous of her; I can't explain it all to you--as a matter of fact,
it hasn't been all explained to _me_! Something was troubling Ruth that
Jack knew, and he said he'd help her.

MRS. TILLMAN. What?

JINNY. That's just it; Jack won't tell me. And the day we sailed from
Naples a telegram came, and of course I opened it, and it said, "Trust
me, I will do everything you say. Ruth."

MRS. TILLMAN. Why haven't you told me anything of all this before, dear?

JINNY. [_Going back to her mother._] I was ashamed to! Somehow, in the
end I always knew I was wrong and had hurt him--hurt him terribly,
mother, the man I love better than everything else in the world! Yes,
eve