Uneasy Money

asked him a question, as if she had suggested that he should commit some crime? It was the patronizing way he had said it that infuriated her, as if he were a superior being of some kind, g

of soft cushions and pink-shaded lights and maids to do one's hair. She hated the cheap furniture of the little parlour, the penetrating contralto of the cook singing hymns in the kitchen, and th

eted her to-day as s

e by the second post. I say, Claire, it's got an American stamp

don't bellow like that!' she said. 'Of course, you can

er, and handed back the envelope. Percy vanished into

rom behind a ha

t you,

come back to pack.

ht to take up Clau

n are you

hree-f

l have t

ly Claire proposed to hurry. She meant to get her packing done in record time and escape from this place. She went into her bedroom and began to throw things untidily into her trunk. She had put the letter in her pocket against a more favourable time for perusal. A glance had told her that it was from her friend Polly, Countess of Wetherby: that Poll

intimacy with her, until on the occasion of Po

ficult. She was mildly surprised that Polly should have written her, for she had been back in America a year or more now,

letter from Claire's mind. She was in the train on her

ted from

lot's happened since I saw you last. I must tell you first about my hit. Some hit!

ut the police reserves to handle the crowd. You can't get a table at Reigelheimer's, which is my pitch, unless you tip the head waiter a small fortune and promise to ma

orry about that. It looks good, and that's all that matters. You can't get away from the title. I was born in Carbondale, Illinois, but that doesn't matt

till the fall, and then I can easily get you a good job in New York. I have some pull these days, believe me. Not that you'll need my help. The managers have only got to see you and they

way: directly I made my hit my press agent, a real bright man named Sherriff, got busy, of course. Interviews, you know, and Advice to Young Girls in the evening papers, and How I Preserve My Beauty, and all tha

erament badly. All his life he's been starting some new fool thing. When I first met him he prided himself on having the finest collection of photographs of

keeps him out of mischief. He has a studio down in Washingto

tack on the artistic temperament to his painting. He's devel

id it this morning, and no sooner had his head appeared above the table than Algie, with a kind of sharp wail, struck him a violent blow on the nose with a teaspoon. Then he turned to me, very pale, and said: 'Pauline, this mus

, who I didn't know was in the room at all, sudden

e home, he declined to cross the threshold again until I had got rid of Eustace and Clarence. I tried to reason with him. I told him that he ought to think himself lucky it wasn't anything worse than a monkey and a sn

ibly sail by the Atlantic, leaving Southampton on the twenty-fourth of this month, you would meet a friend of mine whom I think you

yield to Algie's outrageous demands, for, though I w

affec

Y WE

the things which would have chimed in with her discontented mood at that moment a sudden flight to Am

, bitterly. She took the letter up again and sa

e old days you can't be rolling. So I have paid for a passage for you with the liner people this sid

on the steamship Atlantic and talking about a Lady Wetherby. Ten minutes later, her passage secured, Claire was walking to the local theatre to inform those in charge of the destinies of The Girl

ing cabbage, would be singing "A Few More Years Shall Roll"; her mother would be sighing; and her little brother Percy would be employed upon some juvenile

iled a ha