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"Hello, Rachael," the girl said. "How are you after all these years?"

"Oh, much thinner, but then I was an absolute butterball!" Miss Clay said. "Tell me about yourself. I hear that you're having a baby every ten minutes!"

"Don't expect me to rave over babies, because I don't know anything about them," said Magsie Clay, with a slow, drawling manner that was, Rachael decided, effective. "Do they like toys?"

"There's Greg!" she said. "What a comfort it is to see a man dress as that man dresses!"

"Children! I'm twenty-two!" Miss Clay said

"I would just love to come!" she said gratefully. "I'll bring my bathing suit, and live in the water! But, Rachael, it can only be from Friday night until Monday morning. Perhaps Greg will run me down in the car, and bring me up again?"

"You don't know how we slaves envy you, Rachael!" Magsie said. "When Greg and I are gasping away in some roof-garden, having our mild little iced teas, we'll think of you down here on the glorious ocean!"

"He laughs," Magsie said, "but, honestly, I don't know where I'd be without Greg. You don't know how kind he is to me, Rachael!"

"I don't have to TELL you how much I've enjoyed this!" Magsie added gratefully.

"You're sick, Rachael, and you don't know it!" said Magsie Clay

"He's charming, Rachael," said Magsie, smiling her bored young smile, with deliciously red lips, as she was buttoned into a long fur coat, "but -- he wants to impose on the fact that -- well, that I have arrived, if you know what I mean? As everyone knows, his day is pretty well over. Now you think I'm conceited, don't you, Greg. Oh, I like him, and he does do it rather well, don't you think? But Richie" -- Richie was the escorting young man -- "Richie and I tease him by breaking into French now and then, don't we?" laughed Magsie.

"Say you were proud of me, Warren?"

"You know," Magsie said to Elinor naively, still holding Warren's hands, "he's helped me -- tremendously. He's been just -- an absolute angel to me!"

"You don't mind his being kind to me, do you, Rachael?" she asked

"In here?" said the fresh, confident voice

"What are you making?" said Magsie

"He always has beautiful handkerchiefs," said Magsie rather faintly. "I remember, years ago, when I was with Mrs. Torrence, thinking that Greg always looked so -- so carefully groomed."

"I suppose so," Magsie said

"We close on the eighteenth," Magsie announced.

"Yes, they were delighted," Magsie responded

"I'll tell you, Rachael," said she, with an evident effort at brightness and naturalness, "I came here to see you about something to-day, but I -- I don't quite know how to begin. Only, whatever you think about it, I want you to remember that your opinion is what counts; you're the one person who -- who can really advise me, and -- and perhaps help me and other people out of a difficulty."

"I want to put to you the case of a friend of mine," Magsie said presently, "a girl who, like myself, is on the stage."

"She's pretty, and young -- " Her tone wavered. "We've had a nice company all winter," she remarked lamely.

"W -- w -- well, I suppose so," Magsie answered dubiously, flushing a sudden red. "I -- don't know what I shall do!"

"Oh, yes, there's no doubt about that, at least!" Magsie said.

"They're stunning!" she said

"Oh, nothing, nothing, thank you, Rachael!" Magsie said eagerly and nervously. "I couldn't -- "

"I mustn't stay,"' she said breathlessly. "I -- I have to be back at the theatre at seven, and I ought to go home first for a few minutes. My girl -- she's just a Swedish woman that I picked up by chance -- worries about me as if she were my mother, unless I come in and rest, and take an eggnog, or something." She rallied her forces with a quite visible effort. "It was just this, Rachael," said Magsie, looking at the fire, and twisting her white gloves in desperate embarrassment, "I know you've always liked me, you've always been so kind to me, and I can only hope that you'll forgive me if what I say sounds strange to you. I thought I could come here and say it, but -- I've always been a little bit afraid of you, Rachael -- and I" -- Magsie laughed nervously -- "and I'm scared to death now!" she said

"I'm going straight ahead," she said rapidly, "because I've been getting up my courage this whole week to come and see you, and now, while Greg is in Albany, I can't put it off any longer. He doesn't know it, of course, and, although I know I'm putting myself entirely at your mercy, Rachael, I believe you'll never tell him if I ask you not to!"

"I've been thinking it all out," Magsie went on, "and this is the conclusion -- at least, this is what I've thought! You have always had everything, Rachael. You've always been so beautiful, and so much admired. You loved Clarence, and married him -- oh, don't think I'm rude, Rachael," the girl pleaded eagerly, as Rachael voiced an inarticulate protest, "because I'm so desperately in earnest, and s-s-so desperately unhappy!"

"You've always been fortunate, not like other women, who had to be second best, but ALWAYS the cleverest, and ALWAYS the handsomest! I remember, when I heard you were to marry Greg, I was just sick with misery for two or three days! I had seen him a few weeks before in Paris, but he said nothing of it, didn't even mention you. Don't think I was jealous, Rachael -- it wasn't that. But it seemed to me that you had everything! First the position of marrying a Breckenridge, then to step straight into Greg's life. You'll never know how I -- how I singled you out to watch -- "

"When I came to America I thought of you, and I listened to what everyone said of you. You had a splendid boy, named for Greg, and then another boy; you were richer and happier and more admired than ever! And Rachael -- I know you'll forgive me -- you were so much FINER than ever -- when I met you I saw that. I couldn't dislike you, I couldn't do anything but admire, with all the others. I remember at Leila's wedding, when you wore dark blue and furs, and you looked so lovely! And then I met Greg again. And truly, truly, Rachael, I never dreamed of this then!"

"Dreamed -- " Magsie's voice sank. Her eyes closed, she put one hand over her heart, and pressed it there. "Then came my plan to go on the stage," she said, taking up her story, "and one day, when I was especially blue, I met Greg. We had tea together. I've never forgotten one instant of that day! He tried to telephone you, but couldn't get you; we just talked like any friends. But he promised to help me, he was so interested, and I was homesick for Paris, and ready to die in this awful city! After that you gave me a dinner, and then we had theatricals, and then Bowman placed me, and I had to go on the road. But I saw Greg two or three times, and one day -- one day last winter" -- again her voice faltered, as if she found the memories too poignant for speech -- "we drove in the Park," she said dreamily; "and then Greg saw how it was."

"Oh, Rachael," the girl said passionately. "Don't think I didn't fight it! I thought of you, I tried to think for us all. I said we would never see each other again, and I went away -- you know that! For months after that day in the Park we hardly saw each other. And then, last summer, we met again. And he talked to me so wonderfully, Rachael, about making the best of it, about being good friends anyway -- and I've lived on that! But I can't live on that forever, Rachael."

"Oh, every day! At tea, you know, or sometimes especially before you came back, at dinner. And, Rachael, nobody will ever know what it's done for me! Greg's managed all my business, and whenever I was utterly discouraged and tired he had the kindest way of saying: 'Never mind, Magsie, I'm tired and discouraged, too!'" Magsie's face glowed happily at the memory of it. "I know I'm not worthy of Greg's friendship," she said eagerly. "And all the time I've thought of you, Rachael, as having the first right, as being far, far above me in everything! But -- I'm telling you everything, you see -- " Magsie interrupted herself to explain.

"Well, it's not much. But a week or two ago Greg was talking to me about your being eager to get the boys into the country early this year. He looked awfully tired that afternoon, and he said that he thought he would close this house, and live at the club this summer, and he said 'That means you have a dinner date every night, Magsie!' And suddenly, Rachael -- I don't know what came over me, but I burst out crying" -- Magsie's eyes filled now as she thought of it -- "and I said, 'Oh, Greg, we need each other! Why can't we belong to each other! You love me and I love you; why can't we give up our work and the city and everything else, and just be happy!'"

"Oh, Rachael! That's what I've been remembering ever since!" Magsie said. "That's what made me want to come to you; I KNEW you would understand! You're so good; you want people to be happy," said Magsie, fighting tears again and trying to smile. "You have everything: your sons, your position, your beauty -- everything! I'm -- I'm different from some women, Rachael. I can't just run away with him. There is an honorable and a right way to do it, and I want to ask you if you'll let us take that way!"

"Well -- " Magsie widened innocent eyes. "Nobody has ever blamed YOU for taking it, Rachael!" she said simply. "And nobody ever blamed Clarence, with Paula!"

"You are kind to listen to me," Magsie answered with disarming sincerity. "I know it is a strange thing to do." She laughed nervously. "Of course, I know THAT!" she added. "But it came to me that I would the other day. Greg and I were talking about dreams, you know -- things we wanted to do. And we talked about going away to some beach, and swimming, and moonlight, and just rest -- and quiet -- "

"Greg said, 'This is only a dream, Magsie, and we mustn't let ourselves dream!'" Magsie went on. "But -- but sometimes dreams come true, don't they?"

"I've tried to fight it, and I cannot," Magsie presently said in a small, tired voice; "it comes between me and everything I do. I'm not a great actress -- I know that. I don't even want to be any more. I want to go away where no one will ever see me or hear of me again. I've heard of this -- feeling" -- she sent Rachael a brave if rather uncertain smile -- "but I never believed in it before! I never believed that when -- when you care" -- Rachael was grateful to be spared the great word -- "you can't live or breathe or think anything" -- again there was an evasion -- "but the one thing!"

"Honestly, HONESTLY," the younger woman presently added, "you mustn't think that either one of us saw this coming! We were simply carried away. It was only this year, only a few months ago, that I began to think that perhaps -- perhaps if you understood, you would set -- Greg free. You want to live just for the boys, you love the country, and books, and a few friends. Your life would go on, Rachael, just as it has, only he would be happy, and I would be happy. Oh, my God," said Magsie, with quivering lips and brimming eyes, "how happy I would be!"

"At all events," the visitor said more composedly, "I have been planning for a week to come to you, Rachael, and have this talk. I may have done more harm than good -- I don't know; but from the instant I thought of it I have simply been drawn, as if I were under a spell. I haven't said what I meant to, I know that. I haven't said" -- her smile was wistful and young and sweet, as, rising from her chair, she stood looking down at Rachael -- "how badly I feel that it -- it happens so," said Magsie.

"But you know how deeply I've always admired you! It must seem strange to you that I would come to you about it. But Ruskin, wasn't it, and Wagner -- didn't they do something like this? I knew, even if things were changed between you and Greg, that you would be big enough and good enough to help us all to find the -- the solution, if there is one!"

"And -- and you won't tell him of this?" faltered Magsie.

"I hope -- I haven't distressed you -- too awfully, Rachael," Magsie faltered.

.Presently Magsie breathed a faint "Good-bye," following it with an almost inaudible murmur that Dennison would let her out.

"It all rests with Warren," she said presently, half-aloud, and in a toneless, passive voice.

"Poor Magsie -- it's all so absurd!"

"When did you get in, and where did you have breakfast?" she asked with pretty concern. "Greg, you've not had any? Oh, I believe he hasn't had any! And it's after one, and you've been operating! Get STRAIGHT in -- "

"Warren Gregory!" said Magsie sternly, "you get right straight in here, and come and have your breakfast! Now, what's nearest? The Biltmore!" She poked the upper door with her slim umbrella. "To the Biltmore!" commanded Magsie.

"No harm done, anyway!" Magsie had reflected drowsily, drifting off to sleep; and she had awakened conscious of no emotion stronger than a mild trepidation at the possibility of Warren's wrath.

"Greg, dear, I've got a horrible confession to make!" began Magsie when this propitious moment arrived.

"Was she surprised, Greg?"

"Well," Magsie said, widening her childish eyes, "didn't you EXPECT her to be angry?"

"Greg!" Magsie was quite honestly astonished. "What did you expect her to do? Give you a divorce without any feeling whatever?"

"I think, if you had been listening to us," Magsie went on, as he did not answer, "you could not have objected to one word I said! And Rachael was lovely, Greg. She told me she would not contest it -- "

"Well, she said several times that it must be as you decide." Magsie dimpled demurely. "And I was -- nice, too!" she asserted youthfully. "I didn't tell her about this -- and this!" and with one movement of her pretty hand Magsie indicated the big emerald on her ring finger and the heavy bracelet of mesh gold about her wrist. Suddenly her face brightened, and with an eager movement she leaned across the narrow table, and caught his hand in both her own. "Ah, Greg," she said tenderly, "does it seem true, that after all these months of talking, and hoping, you and I are going to belong to each other?"

"She thinks she has!" Magsie said triumphantly.

"She doesn't have to think," Magsie assured him with the same air of satisfaction; "she knows! Everyone knows how much you and I have been together: everyone knows that you backed 'The Bad Little Lady' -- "

"And what do we care, Greg? I don't care what the world thinks as long as I have you! Let them have the letters, let them buzz -- we'll be miles away, and we won't care! And in a year or two, Greg, we'll come back, and they'll all flock about us -- you'll see! That's the advantage of a name like the Gregory name! Why, who among them all dropped Clarence on Paula's account, or Rachael on Clarence's?"

"On the contrary," Magsie said confidently, "it has cleared things up. It had to come, Greg; every time you and I talked about it we brought the inevitable nearer! Why, you weren't ever at home. Could that have gone on forever? You had no home, no wife, no freedom. I was simply getting sick of the whole thing! Now at least we're all open and aboveboard; all we've got to do is quietly set the wheels in motion!"

"Positively?" asked Magsie.

"You won't just telephone that you're delayed, Greg, and leave me to wonder and worry?" the girl asked wistfully. "I'll wait until any hour!"

"In a few months, perhaps," said Magsie at parting, "when he's all tired and cross, I'll make him coffee AT HOME, and see that he gets his rest and quiet whenever he needs it!"

"Spoils you by leaving you alone in this hot town for six months out of every year?" Magsie laughed lightly. "Good-bye, dear! At half-past four?"

For the first time, in what she would have described as this "funny, mixed-up business," she began seriously to contemplate her elevation to the dignity of Warren Gregory's wife.

"Greg," she said a dozen times, "isn't it all like a dream?"

"What did you expect her to do?" Magsie had asked.

"S'pose I would," dimpled Magsie in interesting embarrassment.

"Oh, I couldn't!" Magsie protested.

"Of course I will!" Magsie agreed, but she did not say it heartily.

"Farce is the most difficult thing in the world to play," she said, now clinging desperately to her little distinction.

"And of course, I may not marry!" said Magsie.

"Greg, dear," said Magsie seating herself on the arm of his chair, and resting her soft little person against him, "I've been thinking about you, and about the wonderful, WONDERFUL way that all our troubles have come out! If anyone had told us, two months ago, that Rachael would set you free, and that all this would have happened, we wouldn't have believed it, would we? I watched you walking down the street yesterday afternoon, and, oh, Greg, I hope I'm going to be a good wife to you; I hope I'm going to make up to you for all the misery you've had to bear!"

"You know I love Rachael, Greg, and of course she is a most exceptional woman," bubbled Magsie happily, "but she doesn't appreciate the fact that you're a genius -- you're not a little everyday husband, to be held to her ideas of what's done and what isn't done! Big men are a law unto themselves. If Rachael wants to hang over babies' cribs, and scare you to death every time Jim sneezes -- "

" -- because I've had enough of Bowman, and enough of this city, and all I ask is to run away with you, and never think of rehearsals and routes and all the rest of it in my life again!" Magsie was saying. Presently she seemed to notice his silence, for she asked abruptly: "Where's Rachael?"

"Oh!" Magsie, who was now seated opposite him, clasped her hands girlishly about her knees. "What is the plan, Greg?" she asked vivaciously.

"Our plan!" Magsie amended contentedly. And she summarized the case briskly: "Rachael consents to a divorce, we know that. I am not going on with Bowman, I've decided that. Now what?" She eyed his brooding face curiously. "What shall I do, Greg? I suppose we oughtn't to see each other as we did last summer? If Rachael goes West -- and I suppose she will -- shall I go up to the Villalongas'? They're terribly nice to me; and I think Vera suspects -- -"

"Because she's so nice to me!" Magsie answered triumphantly. "Rachael's been just a little snippy to Vera," she confided further, "or Vera thinks she has. She's not been up there for ages! I could tell Vera -- -"

"Oh, Greg, dear, you're too generous!"

."Who says you're a cad?" Magsie demanded indignantly.

"Greg, dear, you shan't say so!"

"About the divorce?" said Magsie with a nod.

"Where?" demanded Magsie.

"Rio?" dimpled Magsie. "You know you have always had a sneaking desire to see Rio."

"Then -- then you didn't mean all you said?" Magsie demanded stormily, after the pause. "You didn't mean that you -- cared? You didn't mean the letters, and the presents, and the talks we've had? You knew I was in earnest, but you were just fooling!" Sheer excitement and fury kept her panting for a moment, then she went on: "But I think I know who's done this, Greg!" she said viciously; "it's Mrs. Valentine. She and her husband have been talking to you; they've done it. She's persuaded you that you never were in earnest with me!"

"You take her one of these!" she said, half sobbing. "Ask her if that means anything! Greg, dear!" she interrupted herself to say in a child's reproachful tone, "didn't you mean it?" And with her soft hair floating, and her figure youthful under the simple lines of her Oriental robe, she came to stand close beside him, her mood suddenly changed. "Don't you love me any more, Greg?" said she.

"But you don't love me enough to stand by me, now that Rachael is so cross?" she asked artlessly. "Oh, Greg, I will wait years and years for you!"

"What does it let Rachael in for?" she asked quickly. "Here's her letter, Greg -- I'll read it to you! Rachael doesn't mind."

"You mean your work can't spare you?" she asked with a shrewd look.

"Ah, well!" Magsie understood that. "Of course you want to get away from the fuss and the talk, Greg," she said eagerly. "I think we all ought to get away: Rachael to Long Island, I to Vera, you anywhere! We can't possibly be married for months -- -" Suddenly her voice sank, she dropped his hands, and locked her smooth little arms about his neck. "But I'll be waiting for you, and you for me, Greg," she whispered. "Isn't it all settled now, isn't it only a question of all the bother, lawyers and arrangements, before you and I belong to each other as we've always dreamed we might?"

"Well, then!" She sealed it with one of her quick little kisses. "Now sit down and read a magazine, Greg," she said happily, "and in ten minutes you'll see me in my new hat, all ready to go to lunch!"

"Rachael, don't talk so recklessly!"

"But she can't do that! She wrote me herself -- " Magsie had begun in anger.

"Right!"

"But -- but what do you mean! What about ME?"

"You mean that you're not going to MAKE her keep her word?"

"You DARE tell me that, Greg?"

"Sorry!" Her tone was vitriol. "Why, but I've got your letters. I've got your own words! Everyone knows-the whole world knows! Can you deny that you gave me this? -- and this? Can you deny -- "

"I've made you cross," she said penitently, "and you're punishing me! Was it my seeing Richie, Greg? You know I never cared -- -"

"Don't think you can do this, Greg," she said with icy viciousness. "Don't delude yourself! I can punish you, and I will. Alice and George Valentine can fix it all up to suit themselves, but they don't know me! You've said your say now, and I've listened. Very well!"

"M-m-mistake to s-s-say we loved each other, Greg?"

"You can go now if you want to, Greg. I'm not going to try to hold you. But I know you'll come back to me to-morrow, and tell me it was all just the trouble other people tried to make between us -- it wasn't really you, the man I love!"

"Oh, hello, darling! No, indeed you're not," Magsie said, tearing up an envelope lazily. "I was trying to write a letter, but I have to think it over before it goes."

"A dollar! I'll have to move-you're raising the price of living!" said Magsie. "She's the janitor's wife, and they're rich already. What possessed you?"

"I wish I had never seen the man!" Magsie said, glad to talk of him. "His wife is raising the roof now -- -"

"I know you did," said Magsie ruefully. "But I don't see what she can do!"

"But CAN she?" Magsie was obviously not sure.

"But she doesn't want him. I went to see her -- "

"Because I cared for him," Magsie said, coloring.

"Oh, beautiful! I knew her before. And she said that she would not interfere. She was as willing as he was; then -- -"

"Apparently." Magsie scowled into space.

"Why, he can't -- or he seems to think he can't -- force her."

"Yes, I know, but we're here in New York," Magsie said briefly.

"But there ARE ways of forcing her, as she will soon see," said Magsie in a venomous voice. "I have his letters. I could put the whole thing into a lawyer's hands. There's such a thing as-as a breach of promise suit -- "

"How do you know?" she demanded.

"Well" -- Magsie was scarlet with anger -- "I could make him sorry, don't worry about that!" she said childishly.

"Exactly!" Magsie said triumphantly. "I knew there was a way! She's a sensitive woman, too. You know you can't go as far as you like with a girl, Billy," she went on argumentatively, "without paying for it somehow!"

"I don't want -- just money," Magsie said discontentedly. "I want -- I don't want to be interfered with. I believe I shall do just that," she went on with a brightening eye. "I'll write him -- -"

"Tell him then," Magsie did not mean to betray his identity if she could help it, "that I really will send these things on to his wife -- that's just what I'll do!"

"Two -- girls," Magsie said with barely perceptible hesitation.

"Ye-es, I believe so."

"I'm not doing one thing in the world. Where's Joe?"

"Stay and have lunch with me," said Magsie.

"Good morning, Mrs. Gardiner," said Magsie; "you'll excuse my dressing all over the place, but I have no maid this week. How's Richie?"

"What a SHAME!" she said warmly.

"I?" faltered Magsie, coloring, and feeling as if she would cry herself.

"I'm sorry," she said slowly.

"I'm awfully sorry, Mrs. Gardiner," stammered Magsie. "I know -- I've known all along -- how Richie feels to me. I suppose I could have stopped him, got him to go away, perhaps, in time. But -- but I've been unhappy myself, Mrs. Gardiner. A person -- I love has been cruel to me. I don't know what I'm going to do. I worry and worry!" Magsie was frankly crying now. "I wish there was something I could do for Richie, but I can't tell him I care!" she sobbed.

"Could you get him away, now?" she said almost timidly. "Is he strong enough to go?"

"I'll go see him," said Magsie in sudden generous impulse. "I'll tell him to take care of himself. It's simply wicked of him to throw his life away like this."

"Why, Mrs. Gardiner," said Magsie in a hurt, childish voice, "I LIKE Richie!"

"And you would want me to marry you, feeling this way?" Magsie faltered.

"And you really want me to go out," Magsie began, smiling through tears, "and get a nice special license and a nice little plain gold ring and come back here with a nice kind clergyman, and say 'I will' -- -"

"This is Mr. Gardiner's mother, Billy," Magsie said solemnly. "The doctors agree that he must not stand this climate another day. He had another sinking spell yesterday, and he -- he mustn't have another! I am going with them to California -- "

"It is all very sudden," she said with the weary, patient smile of the invalid's wife, "but he won't go without me."

And then, as Mrs. Gardiner began to give directions to the driver of her own car, which was waiting, she went on inconsequentially, and in a low and troubled undertone, "I didn't know what to do. Do -- do you think I'm a fool, Billy?"

"He won't know," she said.

"Oh, he's not here. He won't be back for ever so long. And -- and Richie can't live -- they all say that. So if I come back before he does, what earthly difference can it make to him that I was married to Richie?"

"He loves me," she said in a soft injured tone, "and I mean to take as good care of him as the best wife in the world could! I'm sick of the stage, and if anything happens with -- the other, I shan't have to worry -- about money, I mean. I'm not a fool, Billy. I can't let a chance like this slip. Of course I wouldn't do it if I didn't like him and like his mother, too. And I'll bet he will get well, and I'll never come back to New York! Of course this is all a secret. We're going right down to the City Hall for the license now, and the ring -- -There are a lot of clothes I've got to buy immediately -- "

"Oh, I couldn't," Magsie said, quite the dutiful daughter. "She's a wonderful person; she's arranging for our own private car, and a cook, and I may take Anna if I can get her!"

"Drive to Miss Clay's apartment, where you picked me up this morning, Hungerford!" she said quickly. "I -- I think I left something there -- gloves -- "

But here was the precious scrap of commencement, "My dearest Greg -- "