reign bow. "And you, of
course, will honor us, Mrs. Brandeis." He had never lived in Winnebago.

"Oh, certainly," Bauer hastened to say. He had.

"I!" Molly Brandeis looked down at her apron, and stroked it with her
fingers. Then she looked up with a little smile that was not so pleasant
as her smile usually was. There had flashed across her quick mind a
picture of Mrs. G. Manville Smith. Mrs. G. Manville Smith, in an evening
gown whose decolletage was discussed from the Haley House to Gerretson's
department store next morning, was always a guest at Bauer's studio
affairs. "Thank you, but it is impossible. And Theodore is only a
schoolboy. Just now he needs, more than anything else in the world,
nine hours of sleep every night. There will be plenty of time for studio
suppers later. When a boy's voice is changing, and he doesn't know what
to do with his hands and feet, he is better off at home."

"God! These mothers!" exclaimed Schabelitz. "What do they not know!"

"I suppose you are right." Bauer was both rueful and relieved. It
would have been fine to show off Theodore as his pupil and Schabelitz's
protege. But Mrs. Brandeis? No, that would never do. "Well, I must go.
We will talk about this again, Mrs. Brandeis. In two weeks Schabelitz
will pass through Winnebago again on his way back to Chicago. Meanwhile
he will write Wolfsohn. I also. So! Come, Schabelitz!"

He turned to see that gentleman strolling off in the direction of the
notion counter behind which his expert eye had caught a glimpse of Sadie
in her white shirtwaist and her trim skirt. Sadie always knew what they
were wearing on State Street, Chicago, half an hour after Mrs. Brandeis
returned from one of her buying trips. Shirtwaists had just come in, and
with them those neat leather belts with a buckle, and about the throat
they were wearing folds of white satin ribbon, smooth and high and
tight, the two ends tied pertly at the back. Sadie would never be the
saleswoman that Pearl was, but her unfailing good nature and her cheery
self-confidence made her an asset in the store. Besides, she was pretty.
Mrs. Brandeis knew the value of a pretty clerk.

At the approach of this stranger Sadie leaned coyly against the stocking
rack and patted her paper sleevelets that were secured at wrist and
elbow with elastic bands. Her method was sure death to traveling men.
She prepared now to try it on the world-famous virtuoso. The ease with
which she succeeded surprise