Roast Beef, Medium

raph no one has any one else in his arms. Since logic and love have long been at loggerheads, the stor

e's nose against that baffling, impregnable, stone-wall phrase of "let us draw a veil, dear reader." This is the

ooked up memoranda, passed on samples of petticoat silk, fired the office-boy, wired Spalding out in Nebraska, and eaten her lunch. Emma McChesney was engaged in tha

ned it hastily, tossed the scrap of paper into the brimming waste-basket, and, yawning, raised her arms high above her head. The yawn ended, her arms relaxed, came

ples! The laugh-lines appeared at the corners of her eyes. She was still dimpling like an anticipatory chi

"It had been a

too large nose, colorless eyes. Emma McChesney stood before the mirror, the cruel little hat perched atop her hair, ready to give it the final and critical bash which

eatherloom Petticoat and Lingerie Company. He entered smiling, leisurely, serene-eyed, as one who anticipates something

d a sheaf of businesslike-looking papers on

g process successfully, so that her hat left only a su

hooky," she s

an inside coat-pocket. "As president of this large and growing

"As secretary of said firm I rise

g the bright-eyed woman before him. The plea

o play hooky at 3:30 P.M. in the middle of November, I fancy the

dly fastened the clasp of

the top of my desk. Ham sandwich and a glass of mil

. Buck's remarkably fine eyes. He came ove

sted in one's business, but I draw the line at ruining my digesti

retorted Emma McChesney. "When you get to be

he pert hat, the shining furs. She was rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed as a schoolgirl. There was about her that vigor, and glow, and alert assurance which bespeaks con

a long breath as

ow, until now I always had an idea that furs weren't be

skins of muff and scarf. She stroked them

tisfactory-until you see a woman in sealskin and

t, so that its glow lighted up his already luminous eye

T. A. Buck, his voice vibrant. "

's fingers. It was as decisive as a blow in the fac

h my sealskin-and-sable fund," she said

tment!" Relief was evid

d furnished-I'm going to rent a flat, a regular six-room, plenty-of-closets flat, after ten years of miserable hotel existence. Jock's running over for two days to approve it. I ought to hav

ng down the cor

ke a boy. "I know all about flats, and gas-sto

with your five-story house and y

et to it." They had reached the elevator. A stubborn look appeared about T. A. Buck's jaw. "I'm going!" he announced, and scudded down the hail to his offic

We'll run up in it. What's the

e you'll take the subway. They're asking enough for that apartment as it is. I don't intend to dri

"Subway it is," he said. "Your presence woul

neighbors. On the door-step stood a maple-colored giant in a splendor of scarlet, and gold braid, and glittering buttons. The great entrance door was opened for them by a half-portion duplicate of the giant outside. In th

his stick, looked about him appreciatively. "Makes the Knicke

ent popped out of his office. "It's all included in the rent. Dinky enough up-sta

pleasing as to manner-but not too pleasing; urbani

teasing me for that apartment since you looked at it. I've had to-well-make myself

levator was taking them higher and high

ze. "My business associate, Mr

tained, he unlocked the apartment door and threw it open with a

agent pulled up a shade, switched on a light, straightened an electric globe. T. A. Buck

couldn't la

red into the kitchen followed by the agent, who babbled ever and anon of views, of Hudsons, of exp

in modern lighting equipment. Yet it scarcely seemed to warrant the passionate scrutiny which T. A. Buck was bestowing upon it. So rapt was his gaze that when the telephone-bell shrilled unexpectedly in the hallway he started so that his stick slipped on

ed. The agent, unruffled, continued

t people think it's too large. They object to a big kitche

ood in the doorway, head on one side,

. A. "You nagged until I had to take you along. Here's a chanc

lothes and the gardenia, "are my specialty," and

the infinitesimal roo

, not as a locker, does it s

center of the room, touched

ed, "that they're-ah-us

got lonesome on the road, which was every evening for ten years, I'd start to plan a kitchen. A kitchen where you could put up

le occupying the room, as at present, the presence of one dill pickle would sort of crowd t

Chesney, "one would have to go ou

excuse me? A party down-stairs-lease-be back in no tim

s the hall door closed behind him. "Good! There's a spot in the mirror over the m

y he watched her as she stood on tiptoe, breathed stormily upon the mirror's surface, and ru

isn't it?"

udicially, and in the opposite direction to which Emma McChesney'

e of glass," he a

rtainly it was not meant to bring forth the storm of protest that came fro

ery normal woman, no matter what sort of bungalow, palace, ranch-house, cave, cottage, or tenement she may be living in, has in her mind's eye a picture of the sort of apartment she'd l

d T. A. Buck. "You as

orm a geometrical problem where X equals the unknown quantity and only the agent knows the answer. But it's going to be a home for Jock and me. It's going to be a place where he can bring his friends; where he can have his books, and his 'baccy, and his college junk. It

considered. Then he gulped, retreated, paced excitedly to the door and back agai

f in for a ragging like that? I think I'm a wee bit taut in the ner

d. "I had it coming to me. I did it deliberately

and eating hotel food that tasted the same, whether it was roast beef or ice-cream, I was planning this little place. I've even made up my mind to the scandalous price I'm willin

he previously had bestowed upon the chandelier. For that matter it was a handsome enough sti

d out of windows. She poked into butler's pantry. She inspe

Chicago-Mary Cutting. You've heard me speak of her. Has a flat on the north side there, just next door to the lake. The rent is ridiculous; and-would

the kitchen. When she emerged again she was still enumerati

wonderful folding table-shelf

o!" he might have been heard to murmur, as o

the lake in the back yard, and a couple of miles of veranda, and a darling vegetable-garden, and the whole place simply honey

tive of his eyes under excitement paled at the glow which lighted them no

t to give you all those things, beginning with the lake in the

ny human face, in the space of seventeen seconds, could be capable of expressing relief, and regret, and alarm, and dismay, and tenderness, and wonder, and a great w

oman who had endured them with one of two determinations: to take up life again and bring it out into the sunshine until it was sound, and sweet, and clean, and whole once more, or to hide the hurt and brood over

he lines of T. A. Buck's too feminin

repeated, "wil

ful thing to see, so full of pain w

p that paper and saw it staring out at me in print that seemed to waver and dance"-she covered her eyes with her hand for a moment-"'McChesney

mma.' he said, 'wi

that covered her eyes a

aid, "will y

ist. People have said about me, seeing me in business, that I'm not a marrying woman. There is no such thing as that. Every woman is a marrying woman, and sometimes the light-heartedest, and the scoffingest, and the most self-suffi

miserably. "But at least you know the worst of

ve been good business chums, you and I. I hope we always shall be. I can imagine nothing more beautiful on this e

-knob, a slim, tall figure in the doorway. Emma McChesney seemed to

ed. "Sketch in the furn

eering into the next room. "Why don't you folks light up? I thought you were another agent person. Met that one down in the hail. Said he'd be right up. What's the matter with him anyway? He smile

!' she cried. 'Sketch in the

ke hands with Buck. Emma McChesney, cheeks glowing, eye

hat's ha

nd like a cat. "W

nger. "You! You're thin! You're-you're emaciated.

self. His glance was pr

faltered

hadows these days. English cut. No padding. No heels. Incurve at the waist. Watch me walk." He flapped ac

's your present form of loco

e juvenile jump, and all our best leading men have it. I

nd laughed again, at Jock's air of offended dignity. They laughed until the rancor in the heart of

er, is there a shower in the bathroo

s. "Jock," called his mother, "do you wan

ions beyond. "Got a lot of

his stick from the co

talk things over together." He raised his voice t

me alone with her. She'll blarney me into consent

en at that. Emma McChesney was watchin

mind, I'll play hooky this time and run over to Atlantic City for a couple

ma McChesney; but her eyes

aid T. A. Bu

a brand-new idea. Give you somethi

" answered T.

worry. A business

d was towering over his

"After your pajama and knickerbock

red him. "Don't expect a show such as yo

replacing the gloom that bad

think the time has come to put in another

h Buck's voice. "Flannel nightgowns! They qui

hey're a national vice. Let me tell you," she went on as T. A. Buck's demeanor grew more bristlingly antagonistic, "there are thousands and thousands of women up in Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and Michigan, and Oregon, and Alaska, and Nebraska, and Dakota who are thankful to retire every night protected by one long, thick, serviceable fl

T. A. Buck's face now, and the trou

of the latest models in deep-sea divers' uniforms, I suppose I'd giv

as he opened the door. "We'll have it

McChesney and her son were left

McChesney, "and come to the window. T

de, I shouldn't wonder if old T. A.'s sweetish

ld

y or over,

e your charming mot

spots where other women of thirty-nine look old. Around the eyes,

o stare at her son. "Just where did you

sights than New York seen at night, from a window eyrie with a mauve haze softening all, as a beautiful but experienced woman is softened by an artfully draped scarf of chiffon. There are cities of roses, citi

ople. And it opened the lips of on

painfully, "I came mighty near

nd searched his fac

k?" she asked, qu

ile clothes stirred and tried to speak, tr

entless hand that clutched her very heart should have rel

as an agony of bitterness and of

he pert little close-fitting hat, rested on the boy's

she echoed

, taking up the thread of his

E