he circumstances it was necessary that she
should make a fresh start. He asked me to send my bill, and we parted on
the best of terms. So it is all over, and except from the point of view
of dollars and cents, I am very glad. Only the remembrance that you had
set your heart on my making this my masterpiece, prevented me from
throwing over the contract weeks ago. Tell me, Selma _mia_, that you
approve of what I have done and congratulate me." He pulled forward his
chair so that he might see her face without interference from the lamp
and leaned toward her with frank appeal.

"Yes, I had set my heart on it, and you knew it. Yet you preferred to
give up this fine opportunity to show what you could do and to get
business worth having rather than sacrifice your own ideas as to how a
house should be built to the ideas of the women who were to live in it.
I dare say I should agree with them, and that the things which they
wished and you objected to were things I would have insisted on having."

Littleton started as though she had struck him in the face. "Selma! My
wife! Do you realize what you are saying?"

"Perfectly."

"Then--then--. Why, what have I said, what have I done that you should
talk like this?"

"Done? Everything. For one thing you have thrown away the chance for
getting ahead in your profession which I procured for you. For another,
by your visionary, unpractical ways, you have put me in the position
where I can be insulted. Read that, and judge for yourself." She held
out to him the newspaper containing the account of the dancing party,
pointing with her finger to the obnoxious passage.

With nervous hands Littleton drew the page under the light. "What is all
this about? A party? What has it to do with our affairs?"

"It has this to do with them--if you had been more practical and
enterprising, our names would have been on that list."

"I am glad they are not there."

"Yes, I know. You would be content to have us remain nobodies all our
days. You do not care what becomes of my life, provided you can carry
out your own narrow theory of how we ought to live. And I had such faith
in you, too! I have refused to believe until now that you were not
trying to make the most of your opportunities, and to enable me to make
the most of mine."

"Selma, are you crazy? To think that you, the woman I have loved with
all my soul, should be capable of saying such things to me! What does it
mean?"

She was quick to