eft! For heaven's sake, why?"

Betty's mind worked swiftly.

"Better treat it as a joke," was her decision. There was no pause before
she answered.

"Oh, trouble with the boss."

"You'll get over it. You're always having trouble with Penny.

"Oh," said Betty, "it's not with Penny this time."

"Not with George?"

"Yes, with George," Betty answered. "Did you think one couldn't quarrel
with the noblest of his sex? Well, one can."

"Oh, Betty, I'm sorry." Genevieve's tone was slightly reproachful.

"Well, I'm not," said Betty. "I like my present job better. It was a
good thing he fired me."

"_Fired_ you! George fired _you_?"

"Sure thing," responded Betty blithely. "I can't stand here talking all
day. What I want to know is, can I see you at lunch?"

"Yes--why, yes, of course," said Genevieve, dazedly. Then she hung up
the receiver and stared into space.

George, beautifully dressed, tall and handsome, now emerged from his
room. For once his adoring wife failed to notice that in appearance
he rivaled the sun god. She had one thing she wanted to know, and she
wanted to know it badly. It was,

"Why did you fire Betty Sheridan?"

She asked this in the insulting "point of the bayonet" tone which angry
equals use to one another the world over.

Either question or tone would have been enough to have put George's
already sensitive nerves on edge. Both together were unbearable. It was,
when you came down to it, the most awkward question in the world.

Why, indeed, had he fired Betty Sheridan? He hadn't really given
himself an account of the inward reasons yet. The episode had been too
disturbing; and it was George's characteristic to put off looking on
unpleasant facts as long as possible. Had he been really hard up, which
he never had been, he would undoubtedly have put away, unopened, the
bills he couldn't pay. Life was already presenting him with the bill of
yesterday's ill humor, and he was not yet ready to add up the amount. He
hid himself now behind the austerity of the offended husband.

"My dear," he inquired in his turn, "don't you think that you had best
leave the details of my office to me?"

He knew how lame this was, and how inadequate, before Genevieve replied.

"Betty Sheridan is not a detail of your office. She's one of my best
friends, and I want to know why you fired her. I dare say she was
exasperating; but I can't see any reason why you should have done it.
You should have let her leave