gain-counters, and was always in debt.

"What a heavenly suit!" she exclaimed, her eyes roving covetously over
Isabel's smart black costume. "Paris, I suppose. Fancy being able to
walk into a store and order a new dress whenever you feel like it. I
have never done that in all my life--"

"It was for that I settled an income upon you before I left for Europe,
but if it is not enough to buy a new frock occasionally--"

"Oh, it would be enough if I could use it for that purpose, but you know
what my life is! If Lyster would only live economically--but it is
dining out at a restaurant five nights a week--champagne half the time,
especially if we have a guest, and we generally have--a Californian
thinks himself disgraced if he doesn't give invited company champagne.
It's all very well to brag about the magnificence and generosity of this
town--when you can afford to. But most everybody _I_ know, at least,
can't, and when the first of the month comes, I guess the women all wish
that San Francisco was more like New York, where they say every
Californian in time avoids every other Californian for fear he'll want
to borrow five dollars, and all the men let themselves go wild over Emma
Eames because she's proper and doesn't cost anything. It's time we
reformed instead of flinging money about like European princes--spending
four times as much as you've got for fear of being called stingy. A San
Franciscan would rather be called a murderer than mean. I talk and talk,
and it's no use. A terrible thing has happened to us," she ended,
abruptly.

"What?" asked Isabel, startled; she had lent an indifferent ear to the
familiar harangue.

"Lyster has gone on a newspaper--the _Ventilator_. Fancy--Lyster a
newspaper artist--making pictures of prize-fights, actresses, murderers,
and society women at the opera. It was that or the street, and Lyster
was frightened for once in his life. We owe for every mortal thing as
well as the telephone."

"That is the best thing I have ever heard of Lyster," said Isabel,
imperturbably. "But when he gets a respectable sum of money for a
picture, as he did a little while ago, why on earth doesn't he pay his
bills, and make a fresh start? I thought he had when I was down."

"Those two weeks cost a good deal," said Paula, softly.

Isabel colored but controlled her anger as she had many times before. "I
was under the impression that the check I gave you when I left--"

"Oh yes, but then you really don