deal of us, and you should blame destiny and the
force of fashionable circumstances, not Flossy, if you drift apart."

"She invited us because she wished to show off her new house."

"Not altogether. You musn't be too hard on her."

Selma moved her shoulders impatiently, and there was silence for some
moments broken only by the tapping of her foot. Then she asked, "How
nearly have you finished the plans for the Parsons house?"

Wilbur's brow clouded under cover of the night. He hesitated an instant
before replying, "I am sorry to say that Mrs. Parsons and I do not seem
to get on very well together. Her ideas and mine on the subject of
architecture are wide apart, as I have intimated to you once or twice. I
have modified my plans again, and she has made airy suggestions which
from my point of view are impossible. We are practically at loggerheads,
and I am trying to make up my mind what I ought to do."

There was a wealth of condensation in the word 'impossible' which
brought back unpleasantly to Selma Pauline's use of the same word in
connection with the estimate which had been formed of Miss Bailey.
"There can be only one thing to do in the end," she said, "if you can't
agree. Mrs. Parsons, of course, must have her house as she wishes it. It
is her house, Wilbur."

"It is her house, and she has that right, certainly. The question is
whether I am willing to allow the world to point to an architectural
hotch-potch and call it mine."

"Isn't this another case of neglecting the practical side, Wilbur? I am
sure you exaggerate the importance of the changes she desires. If I were
building a house, I should expect to have it built to suit me, and I
should be annoyed if the architect stood on points and were captious."
Selma under the influence of this more congenial theme had partially
recovered her equanimity. Her duty was her pleasure, and it was clearly
her duty to lead her husband in the right path and save him from
becoming the victim of his own shortcomings.

Wilbur sighed. "I have told her," he said, "that I would submit another
entirely new sketch. It may be that I can introduce some of her and her
daughter's splurgy and garish misconceptions without making myself
hopelessly ridiculous."

He entered the house wearily, and as he stood before the hall table
under the chandelier, Selma took him by the arm and turning him toward
her gazed into his face. "I wish to examine you. Pauline said to me
to-day that she