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 THE 1 IBRARY 
 
 :HE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CAL IFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 BY 
 
 MAURICE WEYL 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE CHOICE" 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MITCHELL KENNERLEY 
 MCMXX
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BT MITCHELL KENNERLKT 
 
 1523772
 
 TO MY WIFE
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A Sard wick was shown into Mr. Pemberton s office, 
 he was much impressed by the quality of exact 
 appropriateness which marked its every feature. 
 The room was almost bare of ornament. Not even a 
 calendar was to be seen. The walls were of some dark 
 fabric spaced by mahogany mouldings, the floor was 
 covered by a self-effacing carpet, there were a few 
 chairs. In the centre of the room stood a large mahogany 
 desk covered by a piece of plate glass. On this desk were 
 a telephone, an ink well and pen holder, and a blotting 
 pad. There were no loose papers of any kind. 
 
 At the desk was seated a man of about thirty-five 
 years, who fitted exactly into his surroundings. Effi 
 ciency spoke in his every feature. His hair was dark, his 
 face square, his eyes keen, under somewhat heavy brows, 
 his nose large but well formed, the mouth of fair size 
 with rather thin lips, the chin firm. As he was seated, 
 the impression that his height was considerably over the 
 average was unavoidable. Actually it was about the 
 average, and the impression he gave of tallness when 
 seated was due to the fact that his legs were rather 
 shorter than the size of his body suggested. His suit was 
 dark in color, elegant and fashionable without reaching 
 the extreme. The rest of his attire was also impeccable. 
 
 5
 
 6 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Hardwick took all of this in as a mass. The details 
 were present but he did not see them as such. He felt 
 the directness, the straightforward efficiency of the 
 whole scheme, just as he was sensible of the temperature 
 without noting that it was cool because of the half- 
 opened window. He stood, hat in hand, awaiting some 
 greeting. 
 
 It came promptly. "Good morning, Mr. Hardwick. 
 Take a seat." The tone was firm, the utterance quick 
 and clear. 
 
 Hardwick seated himself in the chair nearest Pem- 
 berton s desk and laid his hat on the floor. 
 
 Pemberton looked at him carefully. What he saw was 
 a man of about forty-five, although the casual observer 
 would have said that he was not quite forty. He was 
 fair, with light brown hair in which there was no sign of 
 gray. Nor was there even the beginning of baldness. 
 His face was rather long, the forehead high. His eyes 
 were gray, his nose aquiline and thin, a moustache 
 covered what would have otherwise shown as a rather 
 weak mouth, small in proportion to the rest of his face. 
 His chin was not remarkable in any way. Perhaps it 
 receded slightly. 
 
 He was well dressed without particular distinction. 
 Altogether, his appearance betokened gentility. No one 
 would ever have taken him for one of the so-called com 
 mon people. 
 
 Pemberton noted some of these details, but what he
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 7 
 
 principally saw was that the man before him was one 
 upon whom he felt that he could exert his own will with 
 little effort. Pemberton made no attempt at analysis; he 
 would have been at a loss to determine the elements 
 which combined to produce his assumption, but, none 
 the less, he was confident of its accuracy. 
 
 "I received your letter " Hardwick began, ques- 
 tioningly. 
 
 "Yes," said Pemberton, "I wrote to you because Mr. 
 Hughes, the president of the company, asked particu 
 larly that I should do so. I suppose you know that 
 McNair, our advertising manager, has left us to go into 
 the army. We have to fill his place with a new man 
 because McNair s assistant, who, under ordinary cir 
 cumstances, would have succeeded him, is also going 
 into the army. Do you believe you are qualified to fill 
 the position?" Pemberton put this question almost 
 brusquely, looking directly into Hardwick s eyes. 
 
 "I ve had a great deal of experience," answered the 
 latter. " I was with the American Harness Company for 
 three years; that was my last job. Before that, I was with 
 the Pendleton agency. And before that I was with the 
 Albright Printing Company as a solicitor for two years. 
 And before that well, I ve had what you might call an 
 all round experience. I know the game inside and out. 
 Of course, I don t know the details of your particular 
 business, but it wouldn t take me very long to get my 
 bearings." Hardwick spoke easily and well, without 
 overconfidence, modestly.
 
 8 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Why did you leave the American Harness people?" 
 asked Pemberton. 
 
 "They told me they were going to cut down their 
 appropriation to a point where they would have to 
 reduce the pay of the advertising manager about one- 
 half. I couldn t stand that, so I quit." 
 
 "Brigham s got the job now, hasn t he?" 
 
 "Yes, I heard so the other day." 
 
 "Well, he s no cheap man." 
 
 "That s what I can t understand. I always thought 
 that he was making more money than I was." Hardwick 
 was becoming somewhat uncomfortable. Pemberton 
 had hit upon a tender spot. 
 
 "Well," said Pemberton, "that s neither here nor 
 there. It s not a question of what s gone before, but 
 what we re going to do now. What salary do you ask?" 
 
 Hardwick hesitated for a moment before replying. 
 "Mr. Hughes told me," he began. 
 
 Pemberton interrupted. "I know. Mr. Hughes told 
 you that we paid McNair five thousand dollars. But we 
 couldn t pay you anything like that. Certainly not to 
 begin with. How much did you get at the Harness Com 
 pany?" 
 
 "Four thousand," answered Hardwick promptly, 
 "but you wouldn t compare that job to this, would you ?" 
 
 "No; but you must remember you didn t keep that 
 job. What would you say to thirty-five hundred to 
 begin with?"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 9 
 
 "I don t know," answered Hardwick doubtfully, "I d 
 have to cut down my living expenses considerably. And 
 just now, with war prices, that s pretty difficult." 
 
 "But, my dear man, that isn t the question at all. 
 Your living expenses must be made to fit your income. 
 You can only count on getting what you re worth, not 
 what you think you need. Is it a go?" 
 
 "Couldn t you make it four thousand?" Hardwick 
 inquired in a tone which to Pemberton indicated con 
 clusively that he would accept the smaller salary. "I m 
 sure Mr. Hughes " 
 
 "Listen to me," interrupted Pemberton. "Let s get 
 down to brass tacks. There are only two reasons for my 
 considering your application. The first is that Mr. 
 Hughes recommended you, but that was only a recom 
 mendation and not an order to employ you. If he had 
 ordered me to put you on and pay you ten thousand, I d 
 have had no choice. Instead of that, he has simply sug 
 gested you for the job. I believe he s some relative of 
 Mrs. Hardwick, isn t he?" 
 
 "He s her uncle." 
 
 "Yes. Well, he suggested that I see you and take you 
 on if you suited me. To be perfectly frank, you don t 
 suit me particularly well, and, if I had my choice, I 
 really believe you wouldn t get the job. But the war has 
 made men scarce everywhere and that s what gives you 
 your opportunity. How about it?" 
 
 "I d like a day or two to think it over," answered
 
 10 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Hardwick slowly. An indistinct idea that he might be 
 able to get Mr. Hughes to improve the offer came into 
 his mind. Pemberton guessed it and said: 
 
 "Well, if you want a couple of days to think it over, 
 just consider that I ve not made you any offer. That 
 leaves both of us free." 
 
 "Yes," said Hardwick, slowly. He was thinking with 
 great intenseness. He did not want this at all. He knew 
 that he must not take any chance of losing this oppor 
 tunity. He felt a dull anger against Pemberton grow 
 within him. How hard he was. He would be a terrible 
 task master. And yet, it was his one chance. 
 
 As he turned these ideas over in his mind, Pemberton 
 watched him coolly, sure of the final decision. And after 
 a little while it came. 
 
 "Coming to think of it," said Hardwick, very briskly, 
 "I may as well accept right now. After all, it s only a 
 start. If I make good, I guess there won t be any diffi 
 culty cashing in." 
 
 "Certainly not," answered Pemberton. "But let s 
 have one thing understood right at the beginning. If you 
 take this job, you re going to be under my orders, and 
 I m responsible for the work of your department. I want 
 it understood that there is to be no use made of your 
 wife s relationship to Mr. Hughes. You re not to try to 
 work any pull. If you make good, your pay will be 
 raised, and if you don t well, I guess you understand." 
 He smiled, but there was no mirth in it.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 11 
 
 Hardwick was nonplused. This was exactly what he 
 had intended to do; accept the position at the figure 
 offered and then appeal to his wife s uncle for an increase. 
 However, he was in for it now and there was nothing to 
 do but acquiesce. 
 
 "Sure," said he, "it s got to be on that basis." 
 
 "Very well," answered Pemberton. "When will you 
 begin work?" 
 
 "Any time," said Hardwick. "How about tomorrow 
 morning?" 
 
 "First rate. See me here at nine-thirty." He was dis 
 tinctly pleased with Hardwick s promptness, he had 
 rather looked for some delay. He showed his pleasure 
 plainly, and Hardwick knew that his first step had been 
 in the right direction. He was still feeling sore, but, now 
 that matters had been settled, much of the smart was 
 gone. All of it left with Pemberton s next words: 
 
 "It s about lunch time. Will you join me? We can 
 talk over our plans." 
 
 "I ll be glad to," answered Hardwick with alacrity. 
 Pemberton did not seem such a bad fellow after all.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 HARDWICK followed Pemberton into a res 
 taurant of the latter s choosing, a place of 
 the first-class frequented by business men. 
 When they were seated in a room in which there was 
 a minimum of bustle and. a maximum of service, 
 Pemberton asked: 
 
 "Shall I order for you?" and followed it immediately 
 with: 
 
 "I don t suppose you eat a heavy lunch." 
 
 He turned to the waiter and gave his order without 
 allowing Hardwick time to answer. Hardwick was much 
 impressed. Never before had he met so masterful a man. 
 It seemed that Pemberton took himself and his wishes 
 for granted with everyone. He simply drove on in the 
 way he wished to go. If anyone cared to risk a collision, 
 it would be just so much the worse for him; Hardwick 
 knew in his own soul that he would never be able suc 
 cessfully to oppose him. He did not admit it, even to 
 himself; he simply felt the power of the other s person 
 ality, the thought of opposition would never occur to 
 him. In fact, he did not consider Pemberton, for the 
 moment, subjectively. He looked at him and his rela 
 tions with others as a mere bystander, one who has but 
 a detached interest in the proceedings. 
 
 When the waiter had gone, Pemberton turned to 
 
 12
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 13 
 
 Hardwick and told him his views with regard to the 
 conduct of the advertising department of the Prescott 
 Manufacturing Company, into whose employ Hardwick 
 had now come.. The company was engaged in the produc 
 tion of a number of hardware specialties. Its business 
 was extremely large, covering the whole country, both 
 by advertising and direct solicitation. 
 
 "You see," said Pemberton, "we advertise direct to 
 the consumer and so have a hold on the ultimate cus 
 tomer. The dealer has to carry our goods; that is, he 
 thinks he has to carry them, which is the same thing in 
 the long run. But we want more than just having him 
 carry them. We want him to push them. We want his 
 good will, we want his interest. And so, we keep adver 
 tising to him constantly. Really, this work is much 
 harder than the national stuff. That s just a case of 
 getting good copy and a first-rate layout. At any rate 
 the agency attends to getting them up and all we have 
 to do is to pass on them. But to keep after the dealer 
 without repeating ourselves too much, to keep him 
 interested, that s the real job. If you can show yourself 
 up to snuff in this particular, you re the man we ve been 
 looking for. And you won t have to stop at McNair s 
 salary either." 
 
 The waiter arrived with their lunch and they were 
 silent while it was being served. When the waiter 
 departed they began their light meal uninterrupted by 
 conversation. Hardwick was again much impressed by
 
 14 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 his companion. He felt his directness, his incisiveness 
 more keenly than ever. No longer did he resent it. On 
 the contrary, he felt it as a distinct stimulus to himself. 
 He thought that, under this man, the very best that 
 was in him would come to the fore. He was quite serene 
 now and so well satisfied with himself and his position 
 in the world that he entirely forgot the awkward expla 
 nation he would have to make to his wife on his return 
 home, a matter which had been troubling him but a few 
 minutes before. 
 
 The silence was broken by Pemberton. "How did you 
 ever get into the advertising game?" he asked, looking 
 directly at Hardwick. 
 
 " Oh, I suppose I just drifted into it," answered Hard- 
 wick. He laid down his fork and thought for a few 
 seconds. "Now that you ask me," he went on, "it s 
 really quite a long story. I did drift into it, but, after all, 
 don t you think most of our progress through the world 
 is more in the nature of drifting than an intelligent con 
 scious effort in a predetermined direction?" He spoke 
 slowly, choosing his words with great care. 
 
 "I guess that s pretty good psychology. But, how 
 ever it may have come about, tell me how you got into 
 the advertising game." 
 
 "You know I m a college man," said Hardwick. "My 
 family were farmers all the way back. My father wanted 
 his son to go to college, and, consequently, I went. 
 Neither he nor I had any ulterior object. I was simply
 
 15 
 
 to have an education which none of the Hardwicks had 
 ever had. After I got my degree, I was supposed to come 
 back to the farm provided I had no other ambition. 
 
 "But when Henry Wallace Hardwick saw his name 
 in Latin on a parchment, the farm did not seem to offer 
 a suitable career. None of the learned professions 
 attracted me, I had no taste for any more plugging at 
 books, so I decided for journalism. It wasn t hard to get 
 on one of the local papers in this town, simply because 
 young Allison was a classmate of mine and his father s 
 word went a long way in the newspaper offices. 
 
 "I wasn t altogether a failure as a reporter. I liked 
 the work. The irregular hours rather appealed to me. I 
 seemed, too, to have a pretty good nose for news. The 
 only trouble was the poor pay. But even that didn t 
 bother me for several years, in fact, until I fell in love 
 and wanted to get married. Say," he interrupted him 
 self, "you don t want the story of my life, do you?" 
 
 "Go on," said Pemberton, "it s very interesting." 
 
 Hardwick ate a few mouthfuls and then resumed. 
 
 "Well, when I got to that point, I knew that I d 
 have to make a change if I ever wanted to earn real 
 money. Have you any idea of what the average editor 
 makes? I don t mean headliners like Brisbane, but the 
 average." 
 
 "I have some idea," answered Pemberton, "go on." 
 
 Hardwick was becoming vaguely conscious of a feel 
 ing of friendliness towards his listener. He did not con-
 
 16 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 nect it, at the moment, with his evident Interest in his 
 story, but that was the fact. 
 
 "I got myself a job in the business department, 
 soliciting ads. I did pretty well, and before long I found 
 I was making double what I had been getting as a 
 reporter. My girl and I had agreed that we wouldn t get 
 married until I was making fifty dollars a week, but we 
 couldn t wait, and when I was up to thirty-five we 
 figured that would be enough for the simple life we con 
 templated. And it was, too, back in 99; everything was 
 much cheaper and I guess life was on a much simpler 
 scale. I remember when I was a boy but, I guess I ll 
 cut that out, this story s too long already. 
 
 "Well, we got married and set up in a little house in 
 the suburbs and found we had plenty. Really, it s the 
 only time in my married life that I ve been ahead of 
 the game. Money in the bank and all that sort of thing. 
 Not much, but plenty. 
 
 "And then my little girl came, and everything 
 changed. I needed more money. My job as advertising 
 solicitor was getting a little bigger every day, but the 
 growth was slow and it seemed as though it would take 
 years before I d be able to make any real money. A good 
 deal of my business came to me because I was pretty 
 clever at getting up attractive layouts and that brought 
 me several offers of jobs as copy man from customers. 
 I fought shy of all of them because they seemed too 
 small and I was looking for a bigger opportunity. I
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 17 
 
 thought I saw it in the printing business. It seemed to 
 me that the printer could get a thousand dollars worth 
 of work while I was selling a hundred dollars worth of 
 space. I mean that a good scheme for an ad was only 
 good for a moderate sized order, while one for an adver 
 tising booklet or a catalogue could run into a big lot of 
 money. I met Johnny Albright one day and put the 
 matter before him. He was interested and offered me a 
 job, guaranteeing me as much salary as I was making 
 and a commission besides. I talked it over with Mrs. 
 Hardwick and although she wasn t in favor of making 
 the change, she didn t have any good reason against 
 doing it, just a kind of hunch that it wouldn t work out. 
 I finally accepted Albright s offer. 
 
 "I did pretty well at the job. I always made a little 
 more than my guarantee, but not enough to make it 
 worth while. The printing business is an awfully hard 
 game. It s like merchant tailoring; every customer wants 
 personal attention and one man can only do about so 
 much. Of course, there are some kinds of printing that 
 run into pretty big money, but not the advertising kind. 
 Either the agency gets all the profit or the customer is 
 some piker who isn t big enough to have an agency 
 handle his business, not to mention having a real adver 
 tising department of his own. But you know all about 
 that." 
 
 "Yes," said Pemberton. "What made you quit 
 Albright?"
 
 18 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I came to the conclusion that all the real profit in 
 the advertising business went to the agency. I had some 
 fair sized customers who were just at the point where 
 they could use an agency. I had done some business 
 with Pendleton and, one day, I asked him how he d like 
 to take me on. When he found out I had some real live 
 prospects, it was easy. I was with him two years. I had 
 fully expected to get an interest in his business; in fact, 
 he let me believe that when we made our original deal, 
 but when I put it up to him at the end of the two years, 
 by which time my customers had become his, he denied 
 that we had ever considered that aspect when we had 
 come together. I was so mad that I threw up my job 
 then and there. 
 
 "I got the position of Advertising Manager with the 
 Harness Company shortly after that, and you know the 
 rest. It s not a very exciting history, is it?" he asked. 
 
 Pemberton did not answer immediately. He looked at 
 his now empty plate, apparently deep in thought. Hard- 
 wick looked at him curiously. He would have liked to 
 learn something of his history from his own lips. All he 
 knew of him was that he had come to the Prescott Com 
 pany from some Western town a few years before as 
 assistant to the sales-manager, and that he was now the 
 general manager of the business. He was considered by 
 everyone to have quite extraordinary ability. His suc 
 cess had been simply meteoric. Apparently he had no 
 close friends. He was unmarried and lived at the Mer-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 19 
 
 chants Club, where he generally remained in his own 
 room. He was supposed to spend all of his time away 
 from the office at work, for, to all appearances, he never 
 attended to any matters of detail while at the office. It 
 was understood that there was never a paper on his 
 desk. He seemed always to be up to his work, never 
 behind. 
 
 "Do you care for a sweet?" asked Pemberton finally, 
 ignoring Hardwick s question. 
 
 "No," answered the latter, "I ll just have a small 
 coffee and a cigar, not too heavy." 
 
 Pemberton called the waiter and gave him the order. 
 Then he turned to Hardwick and asked: 
 
 "Have you but the one child?" 
 
 "No, there are two: Alice is seventeen and Marian is 
 fifteen. They re a great pair of girls." He beamed with 
 pride. There was no mistaking the intensity of his love 
 for his children. Pemberton noted it and was conscious 
 of a slight feeling of envy. It did not seem reasonable to 
 him that anyone should find so much satisfaction in 
 what was, after all, a purely elementary emotion. 
 
 Hardwick was wondering what sort of question he 
 might venture to put to Pemberton which would move 
 him to tell something of himself. But all that occurred 
 to him were rejected as soon as they presented them 
 selves. Friendly as Pemberton had been, as had been 
 shown by his lively interest in Hardwick s story, there 
 was about him a reserve which appeared to be quite
 
 20 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 impenetrable, certainly to his present companion, who, 
 somewhat embarrassed by the silence with which his 
 last remark had been met, went on to talk further of his 
 family. 
 
 "I d like you to meet Mrs. Hard wick and the girls. 
 I believe you d enjoy the kiddies; they re young and, 
 if you ll pardon a doting parent, they re both clever and 
 unspoiled. Will you come out to dinner some evening?" 
 
 "Thanks," answered Pemberton. "I don t go out at 
 all. I d like to come perhaps I will later. Thanks very 
 much." 
 
 There was just the least bit of hesitation in his man 
 ner. Slight as it was, almost imperceptible, in fact, it was 
 the first sign of any such thing that Pemberton had 
 shown to Hardwick.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A five-thirty on that afternoon, late in May, 1917, 
 Hardwick let himself into his house. It was a 
 small, suburban dwelling, one of a row in which 
 two commonplace styles of architecture alternated. 
 
 The door gave directly into a fair-sized hall, the fur 
 nishing of which is difficult to picture in words. To begin 
 with, the walls were covered with a pale gray Chambray 
 paper, which would have been entirely suitable in a 
 bedroom, but which here was woefully out of place. 
 The woodwork of chestnut had been stained to imitate 
 yellow oak. The furniture was varied in the extreme. 
 A couch of the Virginia Colonial type, covered with 
 flowered tapestry, was the main feature, although strong 
 competition was offered by the window seats, with 
 cushions covered with bright red velvet. A mahogany 
 Morris chair with tapestry cushions, two small chairs of 
 the Louis XIV period in walnut, covered in French blue 
 velvet, and a round oak centre table completed the list 
 of the larger features. The general confusion was height 
 ened by window draperies of a flowered tapestry whose 
 strident colorings offered a sharp contrast to the equally 
 strident but quite different tapestry used for the furni 
 ture covering. The floor was covered by what was prob 
 ably the only Persian rug that ever faded. 
 
 It was an oppressive room. Pictures of all kinds were 
 
 21
 
 22 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 everywhere crowded on the walls. No matter where one 
 looked, some perfervid decoration seized the eye. Even 
 the handle of the damper in the open fireplace was used 
 to support a bunch of dried hydrangeas. 
 
 The centre table, literally piled with magazines and 
 books, served as a hatrack as well. A sweater, some hair- 
 ribbons, a girl s hat, some gloves were thrown on it in 
 careless confusion. At one edge of the table there was a 
 silver card tray, bearing quite a number of visiting cards, 
 the top one being that of a distinguished society woman, 
 Mrs. L. Percival Sedley. It had evidently held the post 
 of honor at the top of the pile for quite a long period, for 
 it was much soiled as well as distinctly dusty. 
 
 The sound of the closing door was followed imme 
 diately by the noise of steps on the oak stairs. Marian, 
 a pretty young girl of fifteen, ran down to greet her 
 father. Disregarding the fact that he was halfway out 
 of his light overcoat, she threw her arms about him and 
 kissed him affectionately. 
 
 "How are you, pops?" she cried. 
 
 "Fine, Mamie," he answered. "Is mother home?" 
 
 "Yes, and so s Allie. They ll be down in a minute, 
 I guess. Did you get the job?" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "I got it all right." 
 
 " That s fine, I m so glad." 
 
 By this time, Hardwick had completely taken off his 
 coat, which he threw on the couch with his hat and 
 gloves upon it, and was about to mount the stairs when
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 23 
 
 his wife and elder daughter appeared at the upper land 
 ing. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was a large woman, not corpulent, 
 but heavy, solid. Her hair was so arranged that it 
 appeared to be black, although a considerable portion 
 of it was gray. Her features were regular but tended 
 towards magnitude. She would have been a handsome 
 woman but for her complete lack of trimness. She wore 
 a dress of dark blue serge which was crushed and wrin 
 kled, and looked as though it was a total stranger to the 
 pressing iron. Its general slovenliness was heightened by 
 a number of spots, varying both in size and the intensity 
 of discoloration. 
 
 "How are you, Henry, my dear?" she said, as she 
 came down the stair. Her voice was not unpleasant, but 
 her manner was unctuous. It seemed to be an affecta 
 tion. Indeed, it had been once, but had now become 
 habitual. 
 
 "All right, Florrie," he answered. "How are you? and 
 you, Allie?" turning to his elder daughter, who ap 
 proached him with her mother. 
 
 Both of the women kissed him, after which they all 
 sat down, Hardwick in the Morris chair, with Marian 
 sitting on one of its arms, her hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "Pops got the job," cried Marian. 
 
 "I made no doubt of it," said Mrs. Hardwick. "I 
 knew that Uncle James wishes would have to be 
 respected."
 
 24 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Uncle James" wishes did the trick in a way," said 
 her husband, "but they didn t go as far as they might 
 have." He paused, he was not comfortable at the pros 
 pect of admitting that he had accepted the position at 
 thirty-five hundred dollars. 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Hardwick with 
 great earnestness. 
 
 "Well just this: You know I went to see the general 
 manager, Mr. Pemberton, and when I spoke to him 
 about the salary that Uncle James had mentioned, he 
 wouldn t consider it, at least to start. Later, when we 
 had lunch together, he told me that if I made good, I 
 could have even more." 
 
 "What is the salary?" asked Mrs. Hardwick. There 
 was a cold severity in her look and tone which indicated 
 plainly that experience had taught her some lessons with 
 regard to her husband, not all of which had been 
 pleasant. 
 , "Thirty-five hundred," he answered. 
 
 "Thirty-five hundred!" she exclaimed, not loudly, 
 but with intense scorn. "You let him induce you to take 
 the position at that salary?" 
 
 "It was the best I could do." 
 
 "Why, Uncle James said distinctly that the position 
 paid five thousand." 
 
 "I know he did, that is, that was what Mr. McNair, 
 my predecessor, got. But Pemberton wouldn t give that 
 much to me to start."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 25 
 
 "Who is this Pemberton, anyway? What right has he 
 to presume to set aside Uncle James promises? I ll 
 speak to Uncle James about it." 
 
 "No, you mustn t," said Hard wick hurriedly. "That s 
 one condition that Pemberton made and I accepted. 
 He made it a distinct condition that I was not to use 
 your influence with Uncle James to have my salary 
 increased. He said it must depend only on my value to 
 the Company." 
 
 "I never heard of such a thing." Mrs. Hardwick was 
 becoming indignant. Her voice was just a shade louder. 
 
 Hardwick, who had learned by much experience, was 
 silent. His wife looked at him for a moment, evidently 
 expecting some word from him, but, when none came, 
 went on: 
 
 " I hope you ll kindly point out to me how we re going 
 to get along on thirty-five hundred dollars?" 
 
 "We ll have to figure that out," answered Hardwick, 
 laconically. 
 
 "Ha, ha," laughed Mrs. Hardwick, scornfully. "That 
 will take a much better mathematician, my dear, than 
 I believe you are." 
 
 Hardwick was becoming angry, although he strove 
 to remain calm. When his wife used this tone, accom 
 panied by a peculiar little cackling laugh, it aroused an 
 emotion which made him wish to do bodily injury to 
 someone. By a great effort, he held himself in this time 
 and said nothing. Not so his spouse.
 
 26 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "What s to become of Alice s going to college?" 
 
 "See here, Florrie," he said, striving to hide his 
 irritation, "we don t have to settle that now, do we?" 
 
 "You don t want to go to college, do you, Allie?" said 
 Marian with the idea of clearing the atmosphere. 
 
 Alice did not answer. She did want to go to college 
 and her mother s question had brought her a lively 
 sense of disappointment. Mrs. Hardwick, however, did 
 not notice Alice. She was bent on venting her spleen and 
 her husband s attempt, as she saw it, to dodge the issue 
 but increased her determination. 
 
 "Marian," she said, sharply, "you will please be 
 silent." Marian shrugged her shoulders and pouted. She 
 could do this safely, for her mother was not looking at 
 her. Instead she was fixedly regarding her husband, to 
 whom she next addressed herself. 
 
 "That s you all over. If you can only postpone the 
 decision of a question, you consider it as good as settled. 
 This is really a very serious matter. My Uncle James," 
 the accent on the word "my" still further exasperated 
 Hardwick. "My Uncle James," she went on, "obtains 
 for you a position in the Company, of which he has the 
 honor of being president, at a salary of five thousand 
 dollars, and you accept the position from one of his 
 underlings at a little more than half of that extremely 
 moderate sum. I m sure I ve always done my duty, I 
 have shared your " 
 
 But Hardwick could hear no more. When the partner
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 27 
 
 of his joys and sorrows embarked on a recital of the 
 latter, he knew that to listen would cause him a loss of 
 control which he would regret not only because he had 
 suffered it, but also because it would open new vessels 
 of recrimination to be poured on his already weary head. 
 He got up and walked up the stairs to the bathroom, the 
 door of which he locked after him. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was not content with this evidence of 
 her victory but went on with the recital for the benefit 
 of her daughters. The tone was now plaintive, mixed 
 occasionally with the sarcastic, accompanied always by 
 the cackling laughter which so annoyed her husband. 
 
 Marian paid her scant attention. She did not dare to 
 leave the room as her father had done, although she 
 devoutly wished that she were able to do so. Alice, on 
 the other hand, listened to her mother with attention 
 and sympathy. 
 
 The contrast between the two girls was striking. Alice, 
 not yet fully matured, gave promise of inheriting the 
 large frame of her mother. Her features were somewhat 
 less salient than hers, but there was no doubt that, with 
 the sharpening of age, they would have the same quality. 
 Her hair was a light brown and her complexion was non 
 descript, being neither blonde nor brunette but partak 
 ing of the character of both. Finally, her only claim 
 to beauty was youthfulness. 
 
 Marian, on the other hand, was distinctly pretty. She 
 was a true blonde with delicate aristocratic features,
 
 28 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 which as yet gave promise rather than represented final 
 development. Perhaps, after all, the undoubted charm 
 of her face was due to the vivacity of her expression 
 rather than any approach to perfection of feature. She 
 had the bright color of health and her petite though 
 vigorous body proclaimed the healthy child. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick s tirade lasted for about ten minutes. 
 When she had completely exhausted the subject, which 
 means that she had used up her temporary stock of com 
 plaint, indignation and sarcasm, she left the room and 
 repaired to the kitchen to supervise the final preparation 
 of their dinner by a small, rather incompetent maid. 
 
 As soon as the sound of her voice ceased, Hardwick 
 came downstairs. He knew the storm was over for the 
 present. 
 
 Some neighbors called during the evening and there 
 was no opportunity to discuss the subject of Hardwick s 
 new position until after their departure. By that time 
 the two girls had retired. 
 
 When their guests had gone, Hardwick expected that 
 his wife would revert to the subject. He was so sure of 
 it that her silence made him somewhat uncomfortable. 
 She spoke of sundry other matters which appeared to 
 claim her interest but which had none for him. At length, 
 when they were getting ready for bed, he took the first 
 opportunity which presented itself to go back to the 
 matter. 
 
 "Listen, Florrie," he said, "I m going to do well in this
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 29 
 
 new job. It s going to be a matter of only a few months 
 before I have my salary put on the proper basis. Of 
 course, it s going to be awfully tight scraping for a little 
 while, but I know it won t be long. I ve never started on 
 a new job with the enthusiasm that I have now. Perhaps 
 it s the idea of working under Pemberton. Really, he s 
 the most wonderful young fellow I ve ever met. Clean 
 cut, straightforward hardly describes him. He comes 
 right out with, What he has to say; no shilly-shallying of 
 any kind. And he seems to guess what s in your mind 
 almost before you know it yourself. 
 
 "I m almost glad I m starting as I am. Not the low 
 salary, of course, although that won t be for long. But on 
 the basis of going into a big, successful concern with a 
 real advertising department and run by a man who 
 knows what s what. At the Harness Company, they used 
 to make me sweat for every cent that went into their 
 advertising." He paused, and looked at Mrs. Hardwick 
 for approval or sympathy. He saw that he had her 
 attention, but neither the approval nor the sympathy 
 that he craved. She said nothing, so he went on: 
 
 "I ve never fait as capable as I do today. I m brimful 
 of energy and ideas. And ideas are what count. I m 
 going to show them a thing or two. If I don t make 
 McNair look like a two-cent piece, my name isn t Hard- 
 wick." 
 
 "It s going to be awfully hard, Henry," his wife said, 
 after a short silence. She had seated herself in an arm-
 
 30 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 chair and was gazing into vacancy. She wore a subdued 
 tragic impression. Hardwick s cue, impressed on him 
 by many similar interviews, was an air of sympathetic 
 interest and he acted on it. 
 
 "I suppose," she went on, "I can add to the family 
 exchequer by my pen. Only today I was speaking on 
 the telephone with Mr. Purnell, the editor of The Times, 
 and he said he had been much interested in my essay on 
 Rousseau. He saw it in the magazine and was quite 
 lavish in his praise of it." She was quickening per 
 ceptibly. 
 
 The change of subject seemed to stimulate her and 
 apparently made her forget her trouble of but a moment 
 before. "I m quite sure," she went on, "that Mr. Purnell 
 would be delighted to have a series of articles from me on 
 literary subjects. Of course, I should have to make some 
 concession in view of the popular audience. I have long 
 felt that the editors of our leading newspapers must feel 
 that the cultural possibilities of their journals should be 
 exploited. For instance, " She was growing quite warm 
 now and Hardwick knew that silent approval on his 
 part would remove, at least for a day or two, all traces 
 of her previous indignation. Therefore, he did not point 
 out to her the well-known fact that newspapers were 
 operated by their business departments with a view 
 solely to making money and that there was no money 
 in literature per se. To mention this world have brought 
 on another argument and, uxoriously, Hardwick was a
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 31 
 
 "peace at any price" man. Wisely, therefore, he held his 
 tongue. 
 
 "For instance," continued Mrs. Hard wick, "a series 
 of short articles dealing in turn with the great names of 
 the Victorian era could not fail to interest a large num 
 ber of readers who are actually hungry for such pabu 
 lum. Only yesterday, I was speaking with Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son and she agreed with me entirely." 
 
 And so on. It was midnight before Hardwick got to 
 sleep.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PROMPTLY at nine-thirty the next morning, 
 Hardwick sent in his name to Pemberton. The 
 telephone operator in the outer office told him 
 that Mr. Pemberton would see him in a few minutes and 
 asked him to take a seat. 
 
 As he waited, he looked about him with interest. He 
 was to be part of this smooth-running machine and he 
 was happy at the prospect. It seemed to him that never 
 had he seen an office in which there was so little lost 
 motion. Everyone appeared to be working quietly, 
 industriously, and yet without haste. There was no 
 talking between the members of the office force within 
 his sight except that which had the look of being part 
 of their necessary work. Efficiency, directness, and order 
 were the keynote. 
 
 His hopes surged high within him. Here was his oppor 
 tunity. For the first time in his life, he was starting right. 
 Always before, he had begun a new venture with high 
 hopes, but each time he had not gone far before he had 
 encountered insuperable difficulties. Either the oppor 
 tunity for his best work was not present or circumstances 
 beyond his control had cramped his effort. Even now, in 
 the jubilation which he felt, he tried to persuade him 
 self that it was merely the novelty which made him 
 so hopeful, and that wisdom would suggest caution in 
 
 32
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 33 
 
 making his appraisal. But he could not convince himself, 
 he could not down the sanguine expectation of real suc 
 cess which controlled him. Under a wide-awake, go- 
 ahead man like Pemberton, with an organization keyed 
 to the highest pitch, with a nation-wide distribution to 
 dispose of the products of the factory, there could be 
 but one result. The only question was as to his ability 
 to handle the work allotted to him. And on that score 
 Hardwick had no fear at all. He felt himself better and 
 stronger than ever before, mentally as well as physically. 
 He would be able, not only to do as good work as was 
 expected of him, but better, much better. He would 
 bring to it a wealth of experience of advertising in its 
 every aspect and, in addition (he felt sure he was not 
 overrating his ability), far more than ordinary ingenuity 
 hi the formulation of effective advertising campaigns. 
 He rated himself no mean student of psychology, not in 
 the academic sense, but in a practical way, as applied 
 to his chosen work. 
 
 Optimism was a marked characteristic in Hardwick, 
 and his imagination painted a brilliant picture of his 
 future with the Prescott Company. Not a definite pic 
 ture, with precise details, but by reason of its very 
 indefiniteness, all the more colorful. 
 
 While he was thus pleasantly engaged, he was told 
 by the telephone operator that Mr. Pemberton would 
 see him now and he got up from his chair and walked 
 into the business manager s private office.
 
 34 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Pemberton greeted him with a nod and motioned him 
 to a chair. He made no apology for having kept him 
 waiting. Strange to say, Hardwick did not expect it of 
 him, although he would have been surprised at such 
 action on the part of anyone else, perhaps because he, 
 himself, was most scrupulous in the observance of all 
 forms of courtesy. 
 
 "The advertising department," Pemberton began, "is 
 temporarily in the hands of Miss Bernstein. She s been 
 with us for several years and she knows every detail of 
 the work thoroughly. She ll be your right-hand man and 
 you ll find her most competent in every respect. I ll 
 send for her directly and introduce you. You can then 
 have her post you as to where the work stands." 
 
 Hardwick did not like the name of his assistant. It 
 sounded Jewishand he did not like Jews. In common with 
 the rest of the world, he attempted to justify his preju 
 dices by believing them to be judgments based on 
 reason. In the case of Jews, he had no reason to offer 
 which even he was willing to look upon as valid. He 
 simply did not like them, that was all. 
 
 However, there was no sign of his feeling in the nod of 
 acquiescence which he gave to Pemberton. He was all 
 attention. Never had he been so much interested. 
 
 "There s no use of my giving you any instructions 
 until you have gone over matters with Miss Bernstein. 
 I d like you to get the hang of things in a general way. 
 You can put in the rest of the morning at that and see 
 me here in this office at two-thirty."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 35 
 
 "Very well," answered Hardwick. 
 
 Pemberton pressed a button at the side of his desk 
 and a boy appeared. 
 
 "Send Miss Bernstein to me," he ordered. 
 
 In less than a minute the door of the office opened and 
 a young woman appeared. She was about twenty-five 
 years old, less than the average height and distinctly 
 good-looking. While her face was not of the type that is 
 most frequent among Jewesses, there was some elusive 
 quality in it which made her name appropriate. She 
 was a brunette, that is, her hair was a dark brown while 
 her skin was fair, not the "peaches and cream" of the 
 blonde, but still not the ivory color of the brunette. 
 Her eyes were beautiful, large, limpid, gray in color. 
 Her nose was aquiline and rather thin. Her mouth was 
 not small, but it was well shaped with lips not too full. 
 It expressed determination and character and was com 
 pletely the reverse of sensual. Her chin was in propor 
 tion to the rest of her features. Her figure was beautiful, 
 its slenderness and grace impressed themselves on Hard- 
 wick in spite of the almost primness of her self-effacing 
 dress. Altogether, she expressed intelligence, keenness, 
 activity, and, despite his prejudice against her race, he 
 was delighted with her. 
 
 Pemberton introduced them and gave some general 
 instructions. He wasted no time either in preliminaries 
 or in any talk following the statement of his wishes. 
 There was a finality in the tone he used in his last sen 
 tence that dismissed them.
 
 36 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Hardwick followed Miss Bernstein into the office of 
 the advertising department. This was a large room with 
 six flat top desks for clerks and one large desk by the 
 window which proved to be his, for Miss Bernstein led 
 him to it. Close by it was a smaller desk, one of the kind 
 which holds a typewriter hi its depths. This was her 
 desk and she leaned against it, while he hung up his hat 
 on a rack back of his chair, and waited for him to speak. 
 
 " I presume this is my desk," he said. 
 
 "Yes," she answered, "and this is mine. You needn t 
 have it so close to yours if you don t want it. Mr. McNair 
 had it brought here." 
 
 "We ll see about that later. Now, Miss Bernstein, I m 
 going to put myself into your hands. Just take it for 
 granted that I don t know anything at all and tell me 
 everything you can." 
 
 "Perhaps it might be better if you were to give me 
 an idea of the order hi which you prefer to take up the 
 different parts of the work." 
 
 Hardwick noted the beauty of her voice. Its pitch 
 was deep and most musical. Her enunciation was clear 
 and she uttered each word distinctly. Her manner, 
 while cordial, was quite impersonal. The thought came 
 into Hardwick s mind that she was, in a way, a feminine 
 counterpart of Pemberton, but a much softened Pem- 
 berton ; the efficiency, the directness without the brusque- 
 ness, the almost-brutality. 
 
 "No," he answered, "just follow your own idea. If
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 37 
 
 there is anything which isn t clear to me, I ll ask you to 
 explain. And when you re all through, undoubtedly I 
 shall want you to tell me quite a lot of things." 
 
 "Very well," she said, and began an account of the 
 methods of handling their business. She spoke without 
 haste, expressing herself clearly and straightforwardly 
 without any apparent effort to choose her words. Hard- 
 wick marveled at her grasp of the business. She seemed 
 to be perfectly familiar, not only with all of the details, 
 but with the general policy of the business as well, both 
 as to the selling and advertising. From time to time, 
 Hardwick put questions to her, to all of which she 
 returned completely satisfying answers. 
 
 When the conduct of the advertising department had 
 been thoroughly gone over, Hardwick said: 
 
 "Thank you very much. I think I have a general 
 idea of how you do things. In the beginning, I ll have 
 to depend on you for a lot of help." 
 
 "I ll be glad to do whatever I can, Mr. Hardwick," 
 she said simply. He was again impressed by the imper 
 sonality of her manner, there was not the least vestige 
 of coquetry; she seemed to be interested solely in her 
 function as part of the advertising department. Her tone 
 was pleasant but her look was altogether serious. He felt 
 that she was quite an unusual kind of girl. A sudden idea 
 seized him. 
 
 "I wonder why Mr. Pemberton didn t offer you the 
 position of advertising manager."
 
 38 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 " He did," she answered. 
 
 "Why didn t you take it?" he asked, really curious. 
 
 "I did not care to take the responsibility, and " she 
 paused. 
 
 "And what?" he asked, as she showed no disposition 
 to continue. 
 
 "Oh! Just that," she said. Then, changing the sub 
 ject, "Shall I get out those letters to the trade-papers?" 
 
 Hardwick saw that she did not wish to continue the 
 conversation. He was disappointed, for his curiosity had 
 really been aroused. 
 
 "Yes, please," he said and picked up some of the 
 papers she had given him and set himself to mastering 
 their contents. 
 
 This occupied him for about half an hour. When he 
 had finished, he called Miss Bernstein and asked her for 
 the files containing copies of the advertising matter they 
 were using. She had it brought to his desk, and he spent 
 the rest of the morning studying it carefully. 
 
 This was a subject in which he felt himself at home. 
 For many years, he had been producing just this sort of 
 thing. What he had before him he found good, well exe 
 cuted but lacking in imagination. It was too prosaic by 
 far; it seemed to take too much for granted. He knew 
 he could do better and his confidence of success was again 
 heightened. This would be easy to beat. He would show 
 them stuff that would bring results; he would compel 
 Pemberton s approval.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 39 
 
 He sat back in his chair and thought; a hundred ideas 
 seemed to be clamoring for attention. He was so 
 engrossed that the sound of Miss Bernstein s voice 
 startled him. 
 
 "I beg your pardon, Mr. Hardwick," she said. "Mr. 
 Cummings, the representative of the hardware trade 
 journal, is here. He asked for Mr. McNair. Do you wish 
 to see him?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Hardwick, "send him in." He was 
 pleased at the prospect of meeting Cummings, whom he 
 had known for years. He craved the latter s admiration 
 of his success in becoming advertising manager of the 
 Prescott Company. 
 
 The visitor came to him in less than a minute. There 
 were the usual salutations, felicitations and conversation 
 appropriate to the occasion, ending by an agreement to 
 lunch together. 
 
 Hardwick returned to his desk at two o clock and 
 spent the next half hour questioning Miss Bernstein as 
 to various details of their work. She again answered all 
 of his questions to his complete satisfaction, showing the 
 most intimate knowledge of the business in every detail 
 within the scope of his questions. Again he marveled at 
 her ability, and, above all, at the complete absence of 
 self-consciousness which she displayed. Her mind 
 appeared to be a registering machine which functioned 
 quite independently of her intimate personality. At 
 least, so it appeared to Hardwick, to whom it did not
 
 40 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 occur that perhaps this very absorption in the minutiae 
 of her work might be her greatest interest. 
 
 Promptly at half-past two, he telephoned to Pem- 
 berton s office and learned that the latter was ready to 
 see him. 
 
 Pemberton was sitting at his desk. As usual, there 
 was no evidence of any activity on his part. There were 
 no papers in sight; in fact, the fantastic thought crossed 
 Hardwick s mind that, as far as evidence to the contrary 
 went, nothing might have been done by Pemberton in 
 the nearly five hours that had elapsed since he last saw 
 him. 
 
 "How are you getting along?" Pemberton asked. He 
 did not invite Hardwick to sit down. However, some 
 thing in his tone encouraged the latter to do so. It 
 appeared that Pemberton was not prodigal of small acts 
 of courtesy although, at the same time, his omission of 
 them was without the accentuation necessary to imply 
 rudeness. 
 
 " I m getting the hang of things, thanks to Miss Bern 
 stein. She seems to know everything." 
 
 "Yes; she s a most unusual young woman. However," 
 Pemberton went on hastily, almost as though he 
 regretted his slight divagation, "you ll require a few 
 weeks to become acquainted with all the details of the 
 work. In the meantime, you will depend more or less on 
 Miss Bernstein." He eyed Hardwick keenly. Evidently, 
 he was looking for something in the latter s expression, 
 but, whatever it was, it was known only to himself.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 41 
 
 "I want to give you a few general instructions only," 
 he went on, after the briefest pause. " It is not my custom 
 to interfere with any man s work. You have your own 
 idea of things, and the only way you can work well is 
 according to this idea of your own and not somebody 
 else s. On matters of general policy, I expect to be con 
 sulted. Outside of that, within the limits upon which we 
 agree, you will be your own master. I judge by results 
 only. I shall not criticize your way of obtaining them. 
 
 "However, I want you to report to me from time to 
 tune, giving me an idea of what you are doing. You will 
 also attend the weekly conference of heads of depart 
 ments, every Monday at two-thirty, in the directors 
 room." He paused again. After a moment of silence, 
 Hard wick said: 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Pemberton," and made as if to go. 
 
 "Wait, I m not through. You are going to buy quite 
 a lot of printing. I don t suppose it is necessary to tell 
 a man of your experience how to do it, but I m going to 
 say a few words on the subject. There is nothing more 
 difficult to buy right. I won t go into details, there are 
 too many of them. I ll only tell you that, in the long run, 
 you ll get from the printer just about what you pay for. 
 The proper course is to decide exactly what you want in 
 advance, down to the last item, and buy it from some 
 one who really can furnish it at a fair price. You have 
 been in the printing business yourself and you know just 
 what I mean, so there s no occasion to go into any fur-
 
 42 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 ther details. All I ll say is: Don t leave it to the printer. 
 "Another thing I saw you at lunch today with 
 Cummings. My advice to you is to keep as free from the 
 people you do business with as you can. You know just 
 what I mean, so we ll not discuss that matter any 
 further." He got up from his chair, which was a sign that 
 the interview was over. Hardwick left, feeling somewhat 
 uncomfortable.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 BY Thursday of the following week, Hardwick had 
 laid out a campaign of direct advertising to the 
 retail dealers. He had worked very hard at it, 
 both in the office and at home, late into the night. He 
 had planned every detail and had brought to the task 
 the best that was in him. Never had he been more inter 
 ested. It was not only the newness of his position which 
 made the work attractive; he had as well a strong incen 
 tive in his intense desire to win Pemberton s approval. 
 He had had no occasion to go to the latter s office since 
 his visit on the afternoon of his first day with the com 
 pany. He had seen him at the conference of heads of 
 departments on Monday but had not spoken to him. 
 Pemberton had introduced him to the men, and Hard- 
 wick had said a few words to them, devoting himself 
 almost entirely to a plea for their co-operation. His 
 manner was modest and he made an excellent impres 
 sion. 
 
 On Thursday morning he submitted his work to 
 Miss Bernstein. She went over it with him with great 
 care and evident interest. She made no comment, which 
 disappointed him, as he was anxious for praise. It 
 occurred to him that she might be held from an expres 
 sion of opinion by shyness, feeling that it would be 
 presumptuous to offer it without being asked. So Hard- 
 wick put the question: 
 
 43
 
 44 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "What do you think of it?" 
 
 "I think it s excellent." 
 
 But that was all. Hardwick had hoped for some 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 During the morning, he went over the whole matter 
 again in fine detail to assure himself that he had not 
 overlooked anything, and, when he was through, he 
 telephoned to Pemberton for an appointment. It was 
 set for four o clock that afternoon. 
 
 Pemberton examined his layouts and listened to his 
 explanation with interest. He asked a number of pointed 
 questions, to all of which Hardwick was able to make 
 prompt and satisfactory answers. When the whole mat 
 ter had been gone over thoroughly, Pemberton said: 
 
 " That s all right, Mr. Hardwick, I have no suggestions 
 to offer." 
 
 Hardwick was elated. He had had no expectation of 
 praise from his superior, that is, an expression of admira 
 tion. From a man like Pemberton, unqualified approval 
 was the highest praise. 
 
 On Friday, he called in several printers, to whom he 
 submitted his layouts and asked for estimates on the 
 work. 
 
 Among the bidders was his former employer, Albright. 
 The latter took it for granted that their previous asso 
 ciation would make him a preferred bidder, and inti 
 mated as much to Hardwick. 
 
 "Nothing doing, old man," said the latter. "There
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 45 
 
 are going to be just four bidders on this work and they re 
 all going to have exactly the same specifications. You ll 
 have just one chance to bid. Any one of the four I ve 
 selected can do the work right. You ll have nothing to 
 figure on that can t be specified exactly. All designs and 
 engravings will be furnished by us, and the specifica 
 tions will be complete. I ll see to it that there will be no 
 chance for any misunderstanding." 
 
 "Who are the other bidders, Harry?" asked Albright. 
 
 Hardwick mentioned them. " I guess they re all 0. K., 
 aren t they?" he said. 
 
 "Oh, I suppose so. I don t think any of them are in 
 our class." 
 
 "Well, they suit me, and if you think they re not in 
 your class, perhaps you d better not bid at all, because 
 I m going to consider their bids right alongside of yours." 
 
 "All right, I ll take a shot at it. Let s see the stuff." 
 
 Hardwick showed it to him. When all necessary 
 explanation had been made, he called Miss Bernstein 
 and offered to introduce her to Albright, but it was 
 unnecessary; they had met before. 
 
 " I m going to put this whole job in Miss Bernstein s 
 charge," said Hardwick, "you can see her about it in 
 future. It s out of my hands." 
 
 Hardwick had several reasons for this action, but 
 the most important was his desire to hold to the letter 
 of Pemberton s advice to keep himself free from the 
 people with whom he would have to do business. He did
 
 46 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 not altogether mistrust himself, but he felt that he was 
 almost too well acquainted with all of the bidders, hav 
 ing met them frequently in his long association with the 
 printing and advertising business. In fact, he felt rather 
 under obligations to some of them for favors of various 
 kinds in the past and he preferred to set up a buffer 
 between himself and them. 
 
 Miss Bernstein displayed neither pleasure nor vexa 
 tion at having this work thrust upon her. She accepted 
 the task as part of the routine. 
 
 The girl puzzled Hardwick greatly. In his long busi 
 ness experience, he had naturally been thrown much 
 into association with women. As a rule, they were willing 
 workers, doing what was allotted to them to the best of 
 their ability. Most of them had no real interest hi their 
 work beyond the desire to do it well enough to hold their 
 positions. Their real lives were elsewhere. Their one 
 ambition being marriage, their work was merely a tem 
 porary affair. Most of them had either fiances, generally 
 men who would not be in a position to marry for a long 
 time, or else had a number of possible suitors, none of 
 whom was finally committed. And the greater part of 
 the remainder were on the look-out. 
 
 But whatever their state with regard to their matri 
 monial expectations, the vast majority of them never 
 entirely sank their sex in their business. They could not 
 be accused of outright coquetry, but they would never 
 let it be forgotten that they were women first and 
 employees second.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 47 
 
 But this girl was all business. It was evident that she 
 knew nothing else within the office, whatever her life 
 might be outside of it. She brought to her work an 
 intense interest that seemed to warrant the conviction 
 that it was her true vocation. Almost constantly asso 
 ciated with her, Hardwick never ceased to wonder at 
 her complete absorption in her work. 
 
 His was a genial nature. He enjoyed the compan 
 ionship of those with whom his business brought him 
 into contact. There was very little reserve in his manner. 
 He enjoyed joviality and was jovial himself. It had 
 always been his custom to be on the most friendly terms 
 with all of his associates in business, of whatever rank. 
 
 But intimacy seemed impossible with Miss Bernstein. 
 She responded to his morning greeting politely but in a 
 manner which cut off the possibility of further friendly 
 conversation. Although she attracted him, he had no 
 ulterior motive in desiring to be on a friendly footing 
 with her; it was simply because it was his nature. Her 
 complete reserve intensified this desire by making 
 special what otherwise would have been merely general. 
 
 As yet, he scarcely knew the other women in his 
 department. With one exception, Miss Henderson, a 
 stenographer, they were mere clerks doing the most per 
 functory kind of routine work, and there was no occa 
 sion for him to come into direct contact with them. 
 They received their instructions from Miss Bernstein. 
 
 On Friday, after the latter had gone out to lunch,
 
 48 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Hardwick, who had been dictating some letters to Miss 
 Henderson, fell into conversation with her. It began 
 through his giving her some instructions. 
 
 "When those last two letters are written," he said, 
 "will you please give them to Miss Bernstein?" 
 
 "Will she sign them?" she asked. 
 
 "No; I merely want her to go over them to verify 
 certain details." 
 
 Miss Henderson made no answer. As she sat there, 
 apparently awaiting either further dictation or dis 
 missal, Hardwick, unaccountably to himself, was moved 
 to say: 
 
 "She s a very bright girl, isn t she?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Miss Henderson, rather grudgingly, 
 it appeared to Hardwick. 
 
 "You seem to think I overrate her," he remarked, 
 eyeing her. 
 
 "Oh! no," she made haste to answer. "She s bright 
 enough, but she s awful queer." 
 
 "Queer? How?" Hard wick s curiosity was aroused. 
 
 "Oh! I don t know. She s kind of high and mighty; 
 seems to think she s better than the rest of us. Her!" 
 this last scornfully. She had been looking at her note 
 book, but now she raised her eyes and looked directly 
 at him. He noticed that she was quite a good-looking 
 young woman, not noteworthy in any particular, just 
 the ordinary type, with fairly regular features, dark 
 hair and a fair complexion, altogether commonplace and
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 49 
 
 yet she was not unattractive, as she sat there in her neat 
 waist and skirt which bespoke the care she gave to her 
 appearance. 
 
 "You know she s a Jew," she continued as Hardwick 
 said nothing. 
 
 "I imagined so," he answered. "Has she been here 
 long?" 
 
 "Ever so long. Four or five years, I guess." 
 
 "You say she s high and mighty. What do you 
 mean?" 
 
 "Oh, I don t know. She never has a word to say to 
 any of us outside of business. She acts just as though we 
 were dirt, not fit to associate with her. Of course, she s 
 been here longer than most of the rest of us, and the 
 boss is crazy about her " 
 
 Hardwick interrupted. He was intensely interested. 
 
 "The boss! Whom do you mean?" 
 
 "Why, Mr. Pemberton, of course," she answered with 
 a smile. She was delighted to find him so much inter 
 ested. His evident amazement was most pleasant to her. 
 
 "You surprise me," he said, "aren t you mistaken? 
 Mr. Pemberton seems interested only in business. You 
 must be mistaken." 
 
 "No, I m not. I guess I ve got eyes." 
 
 "And an imagination, too, I take it." 
 
 His words had exactly their intended effect. They 
 spurred her on to give proof. 
 
 "Imagination nothing," she said. "It s Miss Bern-
 
 50 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 stein here and Miss Bernstein there with him. Nobody 
 else can do anything right but Ruth Bernstein, Humph!" 
 
 "Is her name Ruth?" queried Hardwick. 
 
 "Yes; Ruth Bernstein. Have you never noticed the 
 way he looks at her? It s a regular give-away. If a man 
 looked at me like that, I d have visions of a solitaire." 
 She got up from her chair, triumphant. She knew that 
 she had incited real interest and it was balm to her 
 spirit. 
 
 "If you re through," she said, " I suppose I may go to 
 my lunch." 
 
 "Yes, thank you, quite through." 
 
 He sat at his desk for a while after she had left, pon 
 dering over what she had said. Could it be true that 
 Pemberton was interested to this extent in Miss Bern 
 stein? It did not seem possible. He would be the last man 
 in the world to mix affection and business. Affection and 
 Pemberton! The two seemed utterly incompatible. And 
 yet, Hardwick thought, the man couldn t be all business, 
 there must be something in his life besides his grinding 
 efficiency. There must be another side as well, and this 
 might be it. Still, it seemed completely foreign, alto 
 gether removed from the Pemberton that he knew, the 
 business machine, all efficiency. 
 
 Efficiency. How he hated the word. Its sudden wide 
 spread use made it sickening to him. The whole meaning 
 of it, as it was generally taken, was opposed to his ideas. 
 It stood for something mechanical, limited, unimagina-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 51 
 
 tive. It crushed the humanity out of mankind. It set 
 them to tasks as one would start a machine, to function 
 regularly without a break, without the slightest divaga 
 tion, without rest, without vision. And he saw Pember- 
 ton as a machine, a complex mechanism driven steadily 
 with but one end in view, untouched, unimpressed by 
 anything which did not contribute to the result he 
 sought. 
 
 And to think of this machine, this business-building 
 monster in love with an office girl. It was absurd. The 
 Henderson girl, out of pique perhaps, for some silly 
 reasons surely, had imagined this. She had construed 
 Pemberton s lack of rudeness to a really superior female 
 clerk as evidence of a most exceptional regard for her. 
 The whole thing was absurd. 
 
 He left his desk and went to his lunch.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ON Saturday afternoon, Hardwick came home at 
 about half past three. It was the first week in 
 June, and, as he walked from the car to his house, 
 he noticed the roses hi bloom in a number of the little 
 gardens fronting his neighbors houses. He was not a 
 particularly observant man, things of this sort seldom 
 claimed his attention. As a rule, he was entirely engrossed 
 in his own thoughts and literally had to be pulled 
 out of them. 
 
 But today he was utterly at peace with the world. 
 At the office, he had spent a most satisfactory morning. 
 The new advertising plans had occupied him from his 
 arrival until closing time, and he had had the joy of 
 feeling that his work was good. Actually, he had dis 
 regarded the usual closing time and had remained at his 
 desk until half past two, perfectly happy in his complete 
 absorption in his task. When he was finally through with 
 it, he had enjoyed a leisurely lunch and had then taken 
 the trolley to go home. 
 
 The gaiety of the roses fitted exactly into his mood. 
 He felt, vaguely, of course, that they were a symbol of 
 his success, that they offered a promise of the fine career 
 that was at last open to him. And then he smiled at his 
 own fancy, at the exuberance of spirits which made him 
 invent so fantastic, so whimsical an idea. 
 
 52
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 53 
 
 He entered the oppressive hall of his home without 
 any sense either of its overburdened furnishing or its 
 usual disorder. He was accustomed to it just as anyone 
 is used to a peculiarity of his own countenance. He 
 whistled as he closed the door as a signal of his arrival. 
 
 An answering whistle from Marian was followed 
 almost immediately by the appearance of the girl her 
 self, running down the stairs at break-neck speed to 
 throw her arms around her father s neck. 
 
 "How are you, pops?" she cried, between kisses. 
 
 "Fine, Mamie," he answered. "Where s mother?" 
 
 "Upstairs. Allie s out." 
 
 They went upstairs together to a small room, the 
 name of which indicated that it was intended to be used 
 for sewing. Indeed, there was a machine in one corner 
 but the dust upon it justified the belief that it had not 
 been in operation for quite a long time. The appearance 
 of the room, moreover, was proof positive that its 
 principal use was for storage, for the lines of hooks upon 
 the walls were filled with all sorts of wearing apparel 
 flung together in great disorder. 
 
 At a small table by the window, Mrs. Hardwick was 
 seated, writing. About a dozen sheets had already been 
 filled and she was half through another. As Hardwick 
 and Marian entered, she turned, pen in hand, and greeted 
 him. 
 
 " How are you, Henry, my dear? " she said in her usual 
 unctuous tone.
 
 54 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Splendid," he said, as he kissed her. "Isn t it a 
 beautiful day?" 
 
 "Isn t it?" she said in confirmation. 
 
 "What are you writing?" he asked. 
 
 "Just a little study of Fielding s work. It s the first 
 chance I ve had to get at it and I ve thoroughly enjoyed 
 the little I ve been able to do. It s really most fascinat 
 ing. It is my purpose to show the complete modernity 
 of Fielding s point of view, his realism. I believe that 
 work of this character will undoubtedly open the minds 
 of many people to a whole great literature which is 
 neglected by them, simply because they feel that it is 
 utterly out-of-date." She paused. 
 
 "No doubt," said her husband, although he was more 
 than doubtful. "Where s Allie?" 
 
 "She went over to see Mary Frothingham. She ll be 
 back in time for dinner," answered Mrs. Hardwick, 
 turning back to her work. Her husband had already 
 left the room when she called to him. 
 
 " Oh, Henry! There s a letter for you on the chiffonier." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 "It s from Maguire. He wants his bill paid. The letter 
 is quite insolent." 
 
 All of Hardwick s peace of mind vanished. This bill, 
 already three months overdue, brought a swift recollec 
 tion of many others, likewise unpaid, whose total 
 reached a figure, for him, quite staggering. 
 
 He came back into the room and sat down. He felt
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 55 
 
 helpless, oppressed by the sense of a great load. How 
 much did he owe? Would he ever be able to liquidate 
 the debts which he felt were crushing him? Mechani 
 cally, he began to count them and each one that he 
 added suggested others. His mind was confused, a sort 
 of dull desperation seized him. They must economize, 
 he thought, they must get some money somewhere. 
 
 "Listen, Florrie," he said at length as his wife went 
 on writing placidly, but with an indescribable mannerism 
 which seemed to convey the information that this was 
 the work of a superior intelligence. Whenever Mrs. 
 Hardwick entered the domain of her own intellectuality, 
 she was a different woman, she was conscious to the 
 finger tips and every part of her shouted "Behold!" 
 
 She turned to him at the sound of her name. 
 
 "What is it, my dear?" she asked, indulgently, as 
 though it was a great concession on her part not to resent 
 an interruption while she was engaged on work of such 
 importance. ( 
 
 " I want to talk over our affairs. This bill of Maguire s 
 " He paused, not knowing which other to name first. 
 
 " How about all the other bills? " she asked. There was 
 a slight note of scorn in her voice which portended a 
 coming storm. 
 
 "It s just those other bills I want to talk about. We ll 
 have to take some steps to pay them." 
 
 "What do you suppose induces me to write these 
 articles?" she said. "I m trying to do my share."
 
 56 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I know that and I appreciate it," he said earnestly, 
 "but we must do more. Can t we economize in some 
 way?" 
 
 "Economize!" she exclaimed. "Have we ever done 
 anything but economize? I haven t a single gown that is 
 fit to be seen. Not that it makes any difference to me." 
 Here she uttered that cackle of forced laughter which 
 drove him nearly frantic. 
 
 She went on: "And the girls! Alice is of an age at 
 which her dress is a matter of importance if she is to 
 move among the right sort of people. Marian is only a 
 child, it is true, but even she is literally in rags. Econo 
 mize!" She paused for breath. 
 
 "My clothes are all right," put in Marian, who had 
 been standing by the door, an interested listener. 
 
 Neither of her parents paid any attention to her 
 remark. Hardwick would have liked to save her from 
 hearing this discussion, but felt too weak, too much at 
 a loss to be able to ask her to go away or to postpone 
 further talk on the subject. 
 
 "How do other people get along?" he asked bitterly. 
 "There s Sedgely, he doesn t make a cent over twenty- 
 five hundred, and he s always flush. And Briggs, I m 
 sure he makes no more than that and you know how well 
 they appear to get along." 
 
 "I suppose I m to understand from that that I m 
 extravagant; that I waste the princely allowance which 
 you make to me." Her manner was icy, but her heat 
 was evident.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 57 
 
 "Not at all, Florrie. Don t put it on that ground. 
 Let s talk this over calmly." 
 
 "Calmly," she cried. "Could anybody be more calm 
 than I under such provocation? For the last ten years 
 I ve put up with insufficient funds to run the house; I ve 
 economized in every way; I ve never considered myself 
 and, at every turn, I am accused of extravagance, of 
 squandering the pittance which you give me." 
 
 "Please, Florrie," he pleaded. "We ll never get any 
 where on that ground. I know you re not extravagant; 
 that you do the best you can. But what I want to discuss 
 is whether there isn t something we can cut out. It won t 
 be for long." 
 
 "Does it never occur to you that you might earn a 
 little more? I don t know what s the matter with you, 
 but other men of your years and experience, with no 
 more brains than you have, earn twice or three times as 
 much as you do." Her tone was biting. He lost patience. 
 
 "I do the best I can. I give you every cent that isn t 
 absolutely necessary to me. I smoke a pipe. I buy cheap 
 clothes, we never go anywhere. Almost all of my money 
 goes to you and any saving that we can make must come 
 out of our living expenses and we must cut them down 
 somehow." 
 
 "Perhaps you ll show me," she said with scorn. "I 
 know I never miss an opportunity to save. I bought that 
 washing machine to save the pay of a laundress " 
 
 "Yes," he interrupted, thoroughly angry now, "you
 
 58 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 paid a hundred and fifty dollars for that washing 
 machine and you have the laundress besides. You save 
 at the spigot and waste at the bung." 
 
 "Of course I m in the wrong," cried Mrs. Hard wick. 
 "I I "she was at a loss for a moment what to say next, 
 so she resorted to her cackle. But it was no longer of the 
 same pitch as before; it was higher now and more 
 piercing. "I ve always been in the wrong; I ve always 
 wasted your substance; I ve slaved; I ve worked like a 
 dog Why," she said, as a sudden thought struck her, 
 "we re even living in my house, the house that was 
 bought with the money that came from my parents " 
 
 "Yes," he answered, angrily, "your house, if the equity 
 hi it is worth considering as property. By the way," he 
 added, "did you pay the mortgage interest?" 
 
 "No," she answered, "you didn t give it to me." 
 
 "You know your allowance is supposed to take care of 
 that. We arranged that at the beginning." He felt 
 utterly outraged. This was the last straw. 
 
 "I d like to know how I m to pay mortgage interest 
 out of what you give me. It s scarcely enough to pay 
 grocers bills." 
 
 He made no answer but sat moodily silent. Not so she. 
 
 "You had an opportunity to take the position my 
 Uncle James obtained for you at five thousand dollars 
 and you let a mere underling engage you for thirty-five 
 hundred. Perhaps you do not consider that extrava 
 gance. Perhaps you would call it generosity."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 59 
 
 Hardwick could stand no more. He left the room, fol 
 lowed by Marian, and went into his bedroom. He seated 
 himself in the armchair, utterly dejected. His anger 
 was almost lost in a feeling of complete defeat, but, from 
 time to time, it regained control of him. He felt that his 
 wife did not use him fairly, that she was indifferent in 
 matters of essential economy. The washing machine was 
 a fair sample, all over the house were evidences of mis 
 management of the sort. The money went and they had 
 nothing for it. 
 
 Marian had followed him into the room without his 
 observing her entrance. She watched him for a moment, 
 sympathizing in his evident distress, and then went over 
 to him, sat on the side of his chair and put her arm 
 around his neck. 
 
 An immense surge of love engulfed him. No word could 
 have done for him what this simple mark of affection 
 brought. Ah! She was his, she loved him without thought, 
 without calculation, just because she loved him. He 
 smiled at her and took her other hand. 
 
 "Let s go for a walk, pops," she said. "It s a lovely 
 day." 
 
 "No, dear," he answered, affectionately, "I don t feel 
 like walking. Besides, I ve some things to think about." 
 
 "Oh! Please come. It ll do you good. And it won t do 
 you a bit of good to sit there thinking of those nasty, 
 horrid things. Please." She looked at him appealingly. 
 He could not refuse.
 
 60 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "All right," he said, "get ready." 
 
 "Fine," she cried as she got up after kissing him. 
 "Mother!" she cried, "pops and I are going out for a 
 walk." 
 
 She did not wait for an answer but ran downstairs 
 followed by her father. They were on the street almost 
 immediately. 
 
 For some time, Hardwick walked along with Marian, 
 without saying a word except an occasional "yes" or 
 "no" in answer to her prattle. They went towards the 
 open country which began about a half mile from their 
 house. 
 
 By the time this distance had been covered, he felt 
 distinctly better. In fact, he found, to his amazement, 
 that he was actually enjoying himself. He could think 
 about his debts another time. There was nothing new in 
 the condition of debtor for him and he wondered why he 
 had been silly enough to let it depress him. 
 
 "Look," he said, suddenly interrupting her account 
 of the stupidity of one of her teachers, "look at that 
 flock of birds there. I suppose they re migrating. I 
 wonder what they are." 
 
 "Warblers," promptly answered Marian. "Aren t 
 their colors wonderful?" 
 
 They stood still for a moment looking at them until 
 the birds had gone. Then they resumed their walk in 
 silence. Presently Marian said: 
 
 "How old was mother when you first knew her?"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 61 
 
 "About twenty," he answered. 
 
 "What was she like then?" 
 
 "How do you mean? How did she look? 
 
 "Yes, how did she look?" 
 
 He thought for a moment. "It s pretty hard to de 
 scribe how anyone looks at any time, but twenty years 
 ago that s a long time." 
 
 "Was she very pretty?" 
 
 "I thought she was beautiful. She looked something 
 like Allie does now. If anything, she was better looking. 
 But I don t really know how she looked, I only know 
 how I thought she looked. You ve seen the photograph 
 of her in her wedding dress." 
 
 "Yes, I know. I guess I didn t mean that I wanted 
 to know how she looked to other people, but how she 
 looked to you." 
 
 "Well, you see, I was a young man and in love, so she 
 had to look beautiful to me." 
 
 "Were you terribly in love?" asked Marian with the 
 greatest interest. 
 
 "I suppose so. It s been a long time since then." 
 
 "Oh! Please tell me about it," she cried. 
 
 "There isn t much to tell. I was a newspaper reporter 
 then. I met her one evening after the theatre; there was 
 a little party of us that went to one of the girls houses, 
 I don t remember which. Mother and I got to talking 
 and we found each other very interesting. She asked me 
 to call on her and I lost no time in doing it. After that, 
 it was the usual story." He paused.
 
 62 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Tell It to me," she said. 
 
 "Well, after I d been calling on her a few months, we 
 were engaged and in about a year we were married." 
 
 "Tell me how you were engaged." 
 
 "I don t remember exactly. It seems we just fell into 
 it. Some time or other I must have spoken to her telling 
 her how I felt, but I don t remember just how it came 
 about. You see, there wasn t anything sudden about it." 
 
 "Was she very sweet?" 
 
 "I thought she was." He paused for a moment and 
 looked up at the sky as though he was trying to revisual- 
 ize the past. "Yes, she was," he added with conviction. 
 
 "Tell me about her," said Marian earnestly. 
 
 There was no doubt of her intense interest. 
 
 "Well, you know she was an only child, and her 
 parents did everything they could to spoil her. I didn t 
 know anything about it at the time, of course. I thought 
 they were very rich and I guess almost everybody else 
 did, too. They lived very well and mother was brought 
 up in what was considered luxury in those days. And 
 when your grandfather died and we found out that 
 he hadn t a cent but was heavily in debt, nobody was 
 more surprised than mother. You see, she had always 
 imagined that her folks had a lot of money. Maybe they 
 did have once, but it must have been long before I knew 
 them. Mother always was used to having servants wait 
 on her and all that sort of thing." 
 
 "But it didn t spoil her, did it?" asked Marian as he 
 paused.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 63 
 
 "No," he answered slowly, "I don t think so. When 
 we were first married, I used to wonder at her getting 
 along so well on the small salary I made. But she did it, 
 all right." 
 
 "Was she always so smart?" inquired Marian. 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Oh! Could she always talk so so beautiful?" 
 
 "Beautifully, do you mean?" 
 
 "Yes, beautifully," answered Marian, accepting the 
 correction. 
 
 "She always had the gift of the gab/ as they say. 
 That was one of the things about her that struck me at 
 the time. She talked so much better than anyone, 
 certainly any girl I had ever met." 
 
 There was a short silence, as they walked on, and then 
 he turned to Marian suddenly and asked: 
 
 "Say, what s making you ask all of these questions?" 
 
 "Oh! I don t know. I was just thinking." 
 
 Hardwick saw what was in the child s mind and did 
 not press his question. They walked along in silence for 
 a few minutes. 
 
 "You have an awful hard time, don t you?" Marian 
 said at length. 
 
 " I don t think so," he replied. " I m really very happy 
 most of the time, particularly when I think of what a fine 
 family I have, all except my younger daughter." He 
 smiled at her. 
 
 "You re a mean old thing," she said, taking his arm 
 and pressing it tightly.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 JAMES KNOWLTON HUGHES was a favorite of 
 fortune. In his case there was no evidence of the 
 fickleness which is usually ascribed to this much 
 abused jade. From his earliest youth, she had showered 
 upon him every material benefit, while he, with custom 
 ary human obliquity, had ascribed his success to his own 
 ability. He considered himself entirely self-made. 
 
 The quality of acquisitiveness was an overmastering 
 character in James Knowlton Hughes. He had wanted 
 wealth always more than he had wanted anything else. 
 It was as natural for him to seek the golden source as it 
 is for a Helianthus to turn its face to the sun. 
 
 Coupled with this quality in him was another which 
 acted as its fitting helpmeet. He not only acquired 
 wealth as a natural function, he retained it. Giving in his 
 case was physically painful, and refusal of favors cost 
 him no great effort. It is doubtful whether he enjoyed 
 the sensation of wealth or merely followed an instinct in 
 its piling up, which was as natural and no more enjoy 
 able than breathing. 
 
 His life may be told in a few words. He was always 
 lucky. Whenever there was some material benefit to be 
 dispensed, circumstances placed him directly in the 
 way of it. He had risen from employee to employer; 
 he had outgrown his original business until now, at 
 
 64
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 65 
 
 nearly sixty, he was interested in many enterprises in 
 which he had had no hand in the upbuilding, but which 
 had sought either his means or the prestige of success 
 which had become attached to his name. It was the 
 latter, as well as a substantial investment in the stock 
 of the corporation, which had procured him the election 
 to the presidency of the Prescott Company on the 
 death of its founder, William H. Prescott. Hughes had 
 been one of the directors for several years. 
 
 Whatever the answer to the query as to his enjoy 
 ment of his wealth, there was no possible doubt as to 
 his great joy in one of his few interests outside of money- 
 getting. He was ardent as a church-goer. A member of 
 St. Luke s Episcopal Church, one of the most fashionable 
 in the city, he devoted much time to its affairs and 
 never willingly missed attending the services. At present 
 he was serving the government in Washington on one of 
 the committees of prominent business men who had 
 been called to lend expert service hi the commercial 
 aspect of war work, and yet he made the trip from 
 Washington every Saturday evening to his own city, 
 a matter of several hours, in order that he might spend 
 Sunday according to the custom of years. 
 
 To St. Luke s, on the Sunday following Marian s 
 walk with her father, Mrs. Hardwick, accompanied by 
 Alice, came with the express purpose of seeing her 
 uncle. She was not regular in her attendance, but went 
 from time to time, as the mood seized her. Hardwick,
 
 66 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 therefore, attached no importance to her going on this 
 particular Sunday. 
 
 He was wrong. Mrs. Hardwick had determined to 
 speak to her uncle about what she considered the 
 interference of Pemberton with Hughes plans. The 
 latter had not promised her that Hardwick would 
 receive any definite salary, he had merely remarked 
 that McNair had received five thousand dollars. But 
 to Mrs. Hardwick this was a promise, nay, a contract, 
 to pay her husband the same figure. 
 
 Directly the services were over, she put herself in 
 her uncle s way. He had not seen her in the church, and 
 was really somewhat surprised to find her awaiting him 
 at the entrance. She greeted him effusively: 
 
 "How well you are looking, dear Uncle," she said 
 with her usual cackle, intended this time to indicate 
 her joy in his appearance of health. "Washington and 
 hard work evidently agree with you." 
 
 "I m feeling all right," he answered. "Hard work 
 agrees with everyone. How are you, Marian?" he asked, 
 addressing Alice, whom he noticed for the first time. 
 
 "Very well, uncle," she answered. "Only I m not 
 Marian, I m Alice." A little simpering giggle accom 
 panied this, with the intention of putting him at ease 
 after his blunder. 
 
 "To be sure," he said, "to be sure. I really know 
 better. Surely you are Alice. How are Marian and 
 Harry?" he asked, turning to his niece.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 67 
 
 "Both are very well," she replied, "and how is dear 
 Aunt Agnes?" 
 
 "Poorly. She seems to make no progress at all. The 
 least effort tires her. Dr. Hayward is doing everything 
 he can and we are hopeful for the best, but it s a slow 
 business." He shook his head gravely. 
 
 "Alice and I will walk along with you to see her, 
 if you think she will be able to receive us." 
 
 Hughes did not know how to avoid this visit, although 
 he did not want it. He was not fond of his niece. She 
 distinctly repelled him, he was always uncomfortable in 
 her presence. 
 
 After a few words with some of the congregation, 
 they started. Mrs. Hardwick did most of the talking, 
 devoting herself to subjects which she felt would interest 
 her uncle, and assuming the attitude in each case that 
 she believed would win his approval. When they were 
 half through their journey, she felt the ground had been 
 sufficiently prepared and ventured into the subject 
 which lay nearest her heart at the moment./ 
 
 "Uncle James," she said with even greater unction 
 than usual, "I want to talk to you about dear Henry. 
 You know his great fault has always been that he does 
 not push himself sufficiently. He has missed innumer 
 able opportunities of self -betterment merely through an 
 ingrained diffidence. You know this very well, for I 
 have frequently spoken of it to you." 
 
 She paused, awaiting some sign of approval or inter-
 
 68 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 est. But none came. Hughes was wearing a mask of 
 stolidity which came upon him naturally whenever he 
 sensed the approach of a request of any kind. Many a 
 supplicant had lost courage in preferring a claim for 
 his services merely upon sight of this expression of 
 impenetrability. But Mrs. Hardwick knew it well, and 
 knew further that, behind it, lay only the final impreg 
 nable rampart which defended the treasure chest. In 
 the interval, once the primary defense was overthrown, 
 she knew that patience on her part would be rewarded. 
 So she went on: 
 
 "It was most lovely and thoughtful of you, dear 
 Uncle James, to give Henry his position with your 
 Company. None of us, I am sure, can ever be sufficiently 
 grateful to you. However, it was what might have 
 been expected of you by anyone who knew your good 
 ness, and I surely am one." 
 
 Hughes listened. From anyone else, he might have 
 enjoyed this obvious flattery. From her, it annoyed 
 him, but he was powerless; he was compelled to listen. 
 Mrs. Hardwick paid no further attention to the manner 
 of his reception of her words and went on towards her 
 objective. Hughes had an idea that he might be able 
 to postpone the discussion of the matter by a reference 
 to the impropriety of considering it on Sunday, but he 
 felt that his niece knew him too well for this. His enjoy 
 ment of church had never been allowed to interfere 
 with business on any day of the week.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 69 
 
 "You know," she continued, "Henry went to see a 
 Mr. Pemberton and arranged the details of his going 
 with the Company with him. He s the general manager, 
 I believe. You can imagine my surprise, my utter 
 amazement, when Henry came home to me and an 
 nounced that he had been compelled by this Pemberton 
 to accept the position at the niggardly salary of thirty- 
 five hundred dollars in spite of the fact that you had 
 promised me that he would receive five thousand " 
 
 "I made no promise," interrupted Hughes, "I said 
 only" 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick completely disregarded this inter 
 ruption except for a very slight raising of her voice as 
 she went on. 
 
 "Your well-known sense of justice is not likely to 
 permit you to put up with such disregard of your 
 instructions. I know that your generosity leads you to 
 believe others to be actuated by the same motive, but, 
 in this case, unfortunately, it is not true. You told me 
 that Mr. McNair received a salary of five thousand 
 dollars and that you would recommend Henry for the 
 position. Coming from your lips, this was tantamount 
 to the most carefully drawn contract. I knew at once 
 that you intended that Henry should receive at least 
 five thousand dollars and rejoiced accordingly. 
 
 "But what do Henry s diffidence and Mr. Pem- 
 berton s illiberality do to your generous plans but 
 completely upset them. Directly Henry announced the
 
 70 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 issue of his conversation with this Pemberton, I deter 
 mined to speak of the matter to you, feeling that it 
 was due you to give you the opportunity to right a 
 wrong which had been committed by one of your 
 subordinates In defiance of your instructions. But poor, 
 self-effacing Henry did not wish me to trouble you, 
 little recognizing the rugged sense of justice which is 
 your strongest characteristic. In order to pacify him, 
 I did not reiterate my intention to lay the matter before 
 you, and it therefore dropped from his mind and it is 
 without his knowledge that I am upon this errand this 
 morning." 
 
 Hughes was becoming uncomfortable. From previous 
 experience with his niece, he knew there was no silencing 
 her except by an agreement to do as she wished. A 
 refusal would but prolong the exordium. She would 
 seize upon some word or other and make it the basis 
 for a new attack. 
 
 By this time they had reached his house and had 
 seated themselves on the porch. There was no longer 
 any importance attaching to the visit to his wife. 
 Although they kept up the appearance of avuncular 
 and niecely affection, the mask was actually off. It was 
 a clear case of endurance, and, while Hughes maintained 
 the seeming of resistance, he knew that he was beaten. 
 
 "I know how you feel towards us," she continued, 
 "you have never missed an opportunity to do us a 
 kindness or to be of service to us, and so I ask that you
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 71 
 
 rectify this mistake with full confidence that you will 
 hasten to do so." 
 
 Hughes raised his hand in a deprecating gesture, but 
 Mrs. Hardwick went right on. She had been through 
 this sort of experience with him before and knew that 
 her attack must not cease until there was no longer any 
 spirit of protest left in him. 
 
 "Of course, I recognize that you must feel a certain 
 delicacy with regard to interfering with the work of 
 your subordinates, and it is but a mark of your fineness 
 of feeling. If it were not a case in which a manifest 
 injustice was being done, irrespective of the fact that 
 the sufferers thereby are your own flesh and blood, it 
 might be very well to hold your hand. But, in this 
 instance, I know that all that is needed is to inform you 
 of the fact; your sense of justice will do the rest." 
 
 "See here! Florrie," interrupted Hughes, rather 
 weakly, it is true, "I didn t promise Harry any partic 
 ular salary. I only " 
 
 "Yes, I know," calmly interrupted his niece, "you 
 did not make a definite promise. You did not say Henry, 
 I engage you as our advertising manager at five thou 
 sand dollars a year. That was not necessary. You did not 
 say in express terms that you engaged him at any defi 
 nite salary. You were held back from so crude a state 
 ment, I am sure, by considerations of delicacy which do 
 you great credit. You merely told us that you would 
 recommend him for the position which paid its previous
 
 72 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 incumbent five thousand dollars. Your intention was 
 obvious, there was no occasion to go into further details 
 with us. We knew you, we were well aware that a hint 
 from you was stronger than a bond from anyone else. 
 Secure in the hope " 
 
 "Say, Florrie," he said, "one minute. Just what do 
 you want me to do?" 
 
 She saw she had won and it was with difficulty that 
 she restrained her joy. Until she had his definite promise, 
 however, she must maintain her attitude of attack. In 
 the same manner as before, therefore, she went on: 
 
 "I want you to do only what your sense of fairness 
 will show is the proper step. It is not for me to suggest 
 what means you are to employ to exercise your author 
 ity over your subordinates. You will, of course, tell him 
 that you had given Henry to understand that he was to 
 have the position at five thousand dollars and that, in 
 view of the circumstances, your promise must be carried 
 out. I am quite sure that you will " 
 
 "All right," said Hughes with resignation, "I ll speak 
 to Pemberton about it this afternoon, but I can t 
 promise that it will have any " 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick broke in here. She did not want that 
 sentence finished by him; she finished it. 
 
 "Of course not, dear Uncle. Of course you cannot 
 promise that it will please him to have his decision, 
 wrongful as it is, set aside. But, it appears to me, that 
 is not necessary. Now that I have your definite promise
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 78 
 
 to have Henry s salary made what you gave us to 
 understand it would be in the beginning, now that the 
 five thousand dollars is actually to be paid, I cannot see 
 that it would be other than captious on my part to ask 
 anything further. Thank you ever so much, dear Uncle 
 James, and now that our little understanding is quite 
 complete, let us go to Aunt Agnes." 
 
 Twenty minutes later, as he heard the door close 
 behind her and Alice, he turned to his wife with the 
 remark, "I m sorry for Harry Hardwick. That woman s 
 a tartar even if she is my sister s child."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FLUSHED with victory, Mrs. Hardwick, accom 
 panied by Alice, wended her way to the trolley 
 which was to take them home. She was so much 
 pleased with herself that her usual air of benevolence was 
 immensely magnified. Actually she radiated good will. 
 Any slight qualm of conscience which might have 
 possessed her by reason of her action contrary to the 
 expressed wish of her husband was speedily lost in the 
 contemplation of the magnificence of her conquest. 
 "Poor Henry," she thought, "it s lucky that he has a 
 wife with a mind of her own; one who is not easily set 
 aside; one who vindicates the claim of her sex for intel 
 lectual equality." But self -approbation, sweet though 
 it might be, was insufficient. She craved the applause 
 of the silent witness of her prowess, who now walked 
 beside her without uttering a word. 
 
 "Alice, my dear," said her mother, "we have done a 
 good morning s work." 
 
 "Yes, Mother," she answered, "father ought to be 
 very happy." 
 
 This was not exactly what Mrs. Hardwick had ex 
 pected, but it gave her an idea. 
 
 "Yes, my dear," she said, "undoubtedly. I want to 
 caution you, however, not to mention to your father, 
 or, in his hearing, to anyone else, that I approached 
 
 74
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 75 
 
 Uncle James on the subject of your father s compensa 
 tion. I would much rather that he receive his increase 
 of salary as a surprise, a delightful surprise." 
 
 "Yes, Mother," said the dutiful daughter. 
 
 "Your Uncle James," continued Mrs. Hardwick, "is a 
 man who is quite set in his ideas. He is very difficult to 
 move from an established position. I rather flatter my 
 self upon having displayed some little adroitness in my 
 talk with him." She paused. Alice took the cue. 
 
 "You Were simply wonderful, Mother. I don t see how 
 you were ever able to stick to it the way you did." 
 
 This was better and Mrs. Hardwick expanded still 
 further. With her cackling laugh, now jubilant hi tone, 
 she proceeded: 
 
 "When there is work to be done, I do not falter; I am 
 not easily set aside. Persistence in the face of obstacles is 
 the great thing. When I know I am right, nothing can 
 deter me, I go directly to my goal, fortified by the cer 
 tainty of eventual success." She beamed upon her 
 daughter, who attempted to appear much more im 
 pressed than she really was. She had seen much of her 
 mother s method of persuasion, and, inwardly, had no 
 high regard for it. Besides, the means to obtain her 
 mother s object had no great concern for her, even though 
 she could not fail to be interested in the result, since, in 
 her mind, her going to college depended on it. 
 
 In the car there was no opportunity for further con 
 versation, and, during the succeeding short walk to 
 their house, they spoke of other matters.
 
 76 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 The visit to Uncle James house had made them 
 nearly an hour late for their dinner, the quality of which 
 had suffered considerably from the delay. None of the 
 family made any comment, either upon Mrs. Hard- 
 wick s lack of punctuality or its result upon their food. 
 They were used to both. 
 
 Hardwick asked about their morning and was in 
 formed as to the sermon, of which his wife had not 
 approved, and also of their meeting with Uncle James, 
 the latter, of course, without any mention of her having 
 waylaid him. 
 
 "Uncle James told me how poorly Aunt Agnes is," 
 said Mrs. Hardwick, "and I could not resist his mute 
 invitation that we come to see her. I spent only a few 
 minutes with her, but I believe that she was much 
 brighter when we left. It is surely a pity that so fine a 
 woman should suffer such misery as she is undergoing." 
 
 And so on at great length. 
 
 After dinner, Hardwick went to his room for his cus 
 tomary Sunday afternoon nap, while his wife resumed 
 her writing in the sewing-room. 
 
 The two girls went out on the porch. It was a delicious 
 June afternoon, just warm enough to make sitting out 
 of doors delightful. The spring foliage, tenderly green, 
 was eloquent of youth. The sky was almost cloudless. 
 
 Marian threw herself into a swinging seat at one end 
 of the porch while Alice sat demurely in a rocking chair. 
 For several minutes neither of them spoke, each busy
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 77 
 
 with her own thoughts. The silence was broken by 
 Marian. 
 
 "Did you see him in church?" she asked with an 
 emphasis on the word "him." 
 
 "Whom do you mean?" asked Alice with a show of 
 innocence. 
 
 "You know all right. Was he there?" 
 
 " I don t know what you re talking about." 
 
 "Oh! No!" said Marian, derisively. "You don t 
 know." 
 
 "No; I don t." 
 
 "Do you want me to tell you?" 
 
 "I don t care whether you do or not, silly," answered 
 Alice. 
 
 "Well, if you don t care, neither do I." 
 
 " I saw Uncle James." 
 
 "I don t mean him. Mother told us all about him." 
 
 "Oh! Did she?" 
 
 "Didn t she?" 
 
 "You re so smart that I suppose you know all about 
 it without being told." 
 
 "All about what?" asked Marian, now really curious. 
 
 "It s a secret anyway, so I won t tell you." 
 
 "A secret," cried Marian, wildly curious. 
 
 "Yes; a secret." 
 
 "Tell me." 
 
 "No, I daren t say anything about it. Mother told me 
 not to."
 
 78 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Pleasetell me, "pleaded Marian, "Iwon t breatheit." 
 
 "Nothing doing," answered Alice, decisively. 
 
 "Oh! please tell me, Allie, I won t mention it to any 
 body. Honest, I won t." 
 
 "I guess you won t if I don t tell you. So there." 
 
 "If you don t tell me, I ll tell mother where you went 
 the day you said you were going over to Frothinghams ." 
 
 "You promised me you wouldn t," cried Alice. 
 
 "I don t care. If you don t tell me the secret, I ll tell 
 mother." 
 
 "Tell-tale," taunted Alice. 
 
 "I don t care. I m going to tell unless I hear the 
 secret." 
 
 "Will you swear never to breathe it to a living soul?" 
 asked Alice. 
 
 "Honest." 
 
 "All right. Then I ll tell you. But if you ever let out 
 one word, I ll never tell you another thing." 
 
 "I promise." 
 
 "Mother talked Uncle James into raising father s 
 salary to five thousand dollars." 
 
 "But father asked her not to." 
 
 "I know, but she did it just the same. You ought to 
 have heard the line of talk she handed the old boy. He 
 didn t get a chance to get a word in edgewise." 
 
 Marian was silent. She felt that this was treachery. 
 With her Hardwick s slightest wish was law and the 
 knowledge of her mother s action caused her a sense of 
 great injury.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 79 
 
 Her silence alarmed Alice, who felt what was in her 
 mind. 
 
 "Remember," she said, "you promised not to tell." 
 
 "I know," answered Marian and said no more. Alice 
 picked up a newspaper which was lying on the porch 
 floor and began to look through it, while Marian went 
 into the house. 
 
 Just before the evening meal, Marian came out on the 
 porch and sat down near her father, who had been there 
 alone. Hardwick was in a most jovial humor and showed 
 it plainly in bantering her. Usually she responded gaily 
 to such talk, but this evening she was preoccupied and 
 gave him only monosyllabic answers. Presently he 
 noticed her quiet humor and asked her what was in her 
 thoughts. 
 
 "I m trying to make up my mind about something," 
 she said. 
 
 "Can I help you?" he asked solicitously. 
 
 "I don t know," she answered. 
 
 A short silence ensued, broken by Marian. 
 
 "I know something that I d like to tell you, but I 
 promised I wouldn t tell and I do so want to that I 
 don t know what to do about it." 
 
 Hardwick was curious but could not determine what 
 course to pursue. He knew that if he pressed her, she 
 would tell him, promise or no promise, and, while he 
 wanted to know what she was withholding from him, he 
 did not wish to take the position of asking her to break 
 a promise.
 
 80 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 He chose silence as the wisest course and sat looking 
 at her attentively. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" she sighed. 
 
 "Is it an important thing?" he asked finally. 
 
 "Awfully important." She relapsed into silence, wish 
 ing that he would resolve her doubt by asking what it 
 was. He said nothing, however, and presently she could 
 contain herself no longer. 
 
 "I just have to tell you, pops, dear, but you mustn t 
 let mother or Allie know you know anything about it. 
 Will you?" 
 
 "Certainly not," he answered. 
 
 "Well, mother went to church this morning to see 
 Uncle James and she talked his ear off and he promised 
 to raise your salary to five thousand dollars." 
 
 She blurted this out all in one breath. Hardwick was 
 dismayed. Leaning towards her, he asked: 
 
 "How do you know this?" 
 
 "Allie told me and I promised not to tell. You won t 
 let on, will you?" 
 
 "No; I won t say a word." 
 
 He got up from his chair and walked to and fro on the 
 porch. He wanted to think straight, to determine what 
 he would do, but he could not. He was thoroughly angry, 
 an anger which was mixed with a keen sense of injury. 
 Thus far, his relations with Pemberton had been all that 
 he could have wished. He felt that Pemberton had been 
 pleased with his work and that it would be but a short
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 81 
 
 time before its quality would be recognized in a practi 
 cal way. Pemberton had enjoined him not to use his 
 wife s relationship with Hughes to procure an advance 
 in his salary and he had agreed. And now, in spite of his 
 clearly expressed wish, Mrs. Hardwick had done this 
 very thing. He wanted to charge her with it, to tell her 
 that instead of helping him she had almost surely made 
 it impossible for him to hold his position. He felt sure 
 that Pemberton would simply dismiss him. He knew 
 that Hughes was no more than a figurehead in the Pres- 
 cott Company and that Pemberton s will was law. 
 
 He did not want to lose this position, entirely apart 
 from the consideration that it might be difficult to find 
 another. He felt that this was the one great opportunity 
 of his career, in which he was offered the chance of real 
 success by the exercise of talents which he knew he 
 possessed and also the means to apply them. 
 
 Finally, he made up his mind that he must talk to 
 Uncle James and tell him not to pay any attention to 
 Mrs. Hardwick s request, that he would prefer to make 
 his own way in the concern and that he did not doubt 
 that it would take but a short time for him to show 
 Pemberton that he was worth at least as much as 
 McNair. He felt somewhat more comfortable when he 
 reached this decision, but not altogether so. He still 
 turned the matter over and over in his mind, wondering 
 if there were not a better course for him to pursue. 
 
 As he was walking to and fro, Alice called them to
 
 82 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 the table. He sat through the meal, almost entirely 
 silent. His taciturnity was observed only by Marian, 
 who did not wonder at it. Alice s thoughts were else 
 where and Mrs. Hardwick was far too busy, expatiating 
 at great length on a number of subjects interesting to 
 herself alone, to notice any change in his manner. 
 
 Directly the meal was over, he announced that he 
 was going to take a short walk. As the diminutive and 
 incompetent maid was taking her Sunday out, the three 
 women of the family had the clearing up to attend to and 
 none of them offered to accompany him. 
 
 He walked to the nearest drug store and entered the 
 telephone booth. It was a matter of a moment to get the 
 Hughes house on the wire, and, when he did so, he was 
 utterly amazed to learn that Mr. Hughes had just left 
 for Washington. 
 
 His first sensation was one of great relief Uncle 
 James departure had at least delayed the matter. He 
 would now have time to think it over carefully. If it 
 were actually necessary, he could forestall the effect of 
 his wife s meddling by telling Pemberton of it before he 
 could hear from Hughes, and by disclaiming the desire 
 to make any alteration in their existing arrangements 
 based upon any consideration other than the value of 
 his services to the Company. 
 
 He was buoyantly cheerful when he rejoined the 
 family. No one except Marian noticed the change in his 
 demeanor. She wondered what had brought it about and
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 83 
 
 was burning to ask him about it. However, she did not 
 do so, restrained by a sense of delicacy. Presently, how 
 ever, she fell under the spell of his good humor, and, 
 childlike, forgot all about it. 
 
 At four o clock in the morning Hardwick awoke. As 
 he lay in bed, trying all of the well-known expedients 
 for the wooing of reluctant sleep, it suddenly came to 
 him that it was well within the possibilities that Uncle 
 James may have communicated with Pemberton during 
 the afternoon. This bare possibility became a dreadful 
 reality to him and his misery of the day before returned 
 to him more acutely than ever. During the hours that 
 immediately precede arising, the human system is at its 
 lowest ebb, and any untoward circumstance is magnified 
 inordinately. Perhaps it is partly due to the impossi 
 bility of action. We are chained to our beds by the cus 
 tom of years and we suffer the pains of the prisoner. 
 
 After a period of dull contemplation of this, to him, 
 dire possibility, Hardwick succeeded in bringing his 
 reason to bear on the subject. Finally, he decided that 
 he would go to Pemberton as soon as the latter would 
 receive him and lay the whole story before him. He felt 
 quite sure that Pemberton would take his word for his 
 entire ignorance of Mrs. Hardwick s intention. 
 
 This decision reached, he was again more comfort 
 able and shortly thereafter fell into a sound slumber.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 PUNCTUALITY was one of Ruth Bernstein s 
 qualities. Half -past eight found her at her desk 
 every morning, ready for business. Hers was a dis 
 position which demanded that she fail in no particular 
 so obvious as this. At first a matter of pure self-con 
 sciousness, it speedily became an ingrained habit, and 
 in this she was like the canary which, when liberated, 
 sought the cage to which it was accustomed. If her 
 punctuality had ever caused her any sense of compul 
 sion to an imposed discipline, it was now a perfectly 
 normal function closed to all question. 
 
 She was usually the first to arrive at the office. The 
 other employees drifted in between half-past eight and 
 quarter of nine and it was usually nine o clock before the 
 entire force was at work. The principals came at nine or 
 later, Pemberton usually reached his desk at nine-fifteen. 
 On the Monday morning following the events last 
 recounted, Ruth was much surprised, on arriving at her 
 desk, to find a note addressed to her in Pemberton s 
 hand asking her to come to his office immediately. She 
 was utterly unable to account for his early coming, 
 although, hi the few minutes which elapsed before she 
 entered his office, she thought of a number of reasons 
 which might have been responsible, all of which, how 
 ever, she rejected as being highly improbable. 
 
 84
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 85 
 
 She was conscious, immediately upon opening the 
 door of his office, that he had been awaiting her arrival 
 anxiously. He was not seated at his desk, but stood by 
 the window. She felt that he was angry, and his manner, 
 as he almost curtly bade her close the door, confirmed it. 
 
 "Sit down," he said, as he came towards his desk. 
 There was no other greeting. 
 
 Ruth sat down in silence, waiting for him to speak. 
 
 "Listen, Ruth," he said, and she started at his use 
 of her given name, but she made no protest. "Yesterday 
 afternoon," he went on, "Hughes sent for me and prac 
 tically ordered me to raise Hardwick s pay to five 
 thousand dollars." He looked at her searchingly as he 
 uttered these words, as though he would read the impres 
 sion they made upon her hi her face. But she showed 
 only a cold interest. 
 
 "I told Hardwick," he continued, "when I engaged 
 him, that he was not to use his wife s relationship to have 
 his salary increased, and he agreed to it." He spoke 
 quickly, with much warmth. Ruth still maintained her 
 air of detached interest but said nothing. Pemberton, 
 who had been standing by his chair, now sat down in it, 
 but immediately got up again and resumed his former 
 position. He was clearly nervous, she thought, and won 
 dered why. There was nothing difficult about the situ 
 ation, as she saw it; the whole issue lay in Pemberton s 
 hands. 
 
 "I ll have to get rid of him," he resumed, "I m not
 
 86 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 going to have this business run on any such basis. Hard- 
 wick s a pretty good man, much better than the aver 
 age; better even than I thought he was. But I won t 
 stand for this." He began to walk to and fro, his per 
 turbation mounting visibly. 
 
 "Why do you tell me this?" she asked at length. 
 
 "Because I want you to take his position," he an 
 swered, stopping in front of his desk and looking at her 
 fixedly. 
 
 "We went over that before," she answered calmly, 
 "and my answer is the same now as it was then. Besides, 
 I want to call your attention to the fact that we agreed 
 that you were not to call me Ruth, certainly not in the 
 office." 
 
 "Oh! What s the use of all this?" he asked angrily. 
 "Why do you continually hold me at arm s length? 
 What s the matter with me?" 
 
 "Nothing," she said in answer to the last of his ques 
 tions, "but you know that you agreed as the price of my 
 remaining here that you would not press me to change 
 my decision for one year. And that s not two months 
 ago." She spoke with great earnestness but with perfect 
 control of herself. 
 
 "I don t know what to make of you," he went on. 
 "You seem to be in perfect sympathy with all of my 
 ideas, you are willing to have me as a friend, you re even 
 satisfied to consider me as much more than that, and 
 yet you insist upon a whole year to make up your
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 87 
 
 mind." He began anew to walk to and fro, his anger 
 dominating him. 
 
 "Listen, Mr. Pemberton," she began. 
 
 "Don t call me Mr. Pemberton when we are alone," 
 he cried. "If you can t call me Fred, don t use any 
 name at all." 
 
 She rose, saying: "There s nothing to be gained by 
 my staying here while you re in your present mood," 
 and started for the door. 
 
 "Sit down," he almost shouted, "I want to talk to 
 you." 
 
 She came back to her chair but did not seat herself. 
 She looked at him questioningly, but he did not speak 
 to her. After a pause, she said quietly: 
 
 "What do you wish to say to me?" 
 
 "Just this: I want you to help me out of this diffi 
 culty." His tone was quiet, persuasive. 
 
 "How?" she inquired. 
 
 "I want you to take Hardwick s place." 
 
 "Are you really going to discharge him?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because he broke his promise to me. I m either going 
 to run this business or I m not going to run it." His 
 voice was again in his usual matter-of-fact business tone. 
 
 "What did Mr. Hughes say to you?" 
 
 "He told me that Mrs. Hardwick had come to him 
 and had insisted that he had promised her that Hard-
 
 88 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 wick would receive the same salary that McNair got. 
 He denied having made this promise, but said that he 
 might have given her that impression. At any rate, he 
 said that he had told her yesterday morning that he 
 would speak to me about it and that he would very much 
 like me to do it." 
 
 "And you offered your resignation," she interrupted, 
 coolly. 
 
 "How did you know?" he asked, surprised. 
 
 "I know you," she answered. 
 
 "Well, I did offer to resign but he wouldn t hear of 
 it. He told me the matter was entirely in my hands and 
 that I should do whatever I thought best." 
 
 "And you think it best to discharge him," she said, 
 scornfully. 
 
 "How else could I maintain discipline?" 
 
 "Oh! Discipline," she said, still scornfully. 
 
 "Well, discipline or not, that s what I m going to do." 
 
 "Mr. Hardwick s a good man in the position, isn t 
 he?" she inquired. 
 
 "I told you that a few minutes ago. That s what 
 makes me mad." 
 
 "And you re going to get rid of him because he wants 
 to be paid a fair salary?" she asked. 
 
 "I don t mind the amount of the salary. I only object 
 to the means he used." 
 
 "If you don t object to the salary, why didn t you 
 give it to him in the first place? " Ruth asked all of these
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 89 
 
 questions in the quietest manner. She still stood by the 
 chair, one hand resting on the back of it. She looked 
 directly at him and her steady gaze was visibly making 
 him uncomfortable. 
 
 "Because I wanted him to have an incentive to work, 
 to show what was in him," he answered. 
 
 "That s what you tell yourself and what you make 
 yourself believe, but Mr. " She paused, remembering 
 his injunction not to address him formally. "The real 
 truth is that you wanted to master him, you wished to 
 bend him to your will, you wanted to domineer, to 
 bully Oh, I know I m right," she went on, as he made 
 a gesture of impatience, "you can t help yourself. You re 
 the master and you want everyone to know it, and what s 
 more, to feel it. You d bully me if you could." 
 
 "No, I wouldn t. You re not fair. You" 
 
 "I am fair," she interrupted, "but you re not. Are 
 you really going to let him go?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, if you do, I won t stay here. You can fill two 
 places instead of one." There was no mistaking her 
 sincerity. Pemberton knew that she meant every word. 
 
 "Why are you so much interested in him?" he asked. 
 
 "I m not interested in him. I m interested in you, I m 
 interested in fairness. I want you to use your power, Lord 
 knows you have it, with justice. Please don t do this 
 thing " she pleaded. 
 
 "Are you asking me not to do it for your sake?" he 
 asked quickly.
 
 90 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "No; for your own." 
 
 "I d do anything for you, Ruth," he said with intense 
 earnestness. "Even this, which goes against all of my 
 ideas. If you d ask me to keep Hardwick and double his 
 salary just to please you, I d do it in a minute." 
 
 "You don t understand," she said anxiously. "It isn t 
 for me, it isn t for Mr. Hardwick, it s for you. Don t you 
 see, Fred?" she was so intent upon conveying her mean 
 ing to him that she used his Christian name uncon 
 sciously. But he was fully conscious of it, and it thrilled 
 him. 
 
 "Don t you see," she went on, "that I have a standard 
 for you that I want you to live up to? You mustn t 
 always drive, you needn t always force others to do 
 your bidding, simply because you have been given the 
 power. Here s this man, for instance, whom you com 
 pelled to take his position at a salary far below what 
 you knew it was worth just because you could do it. 
 It s beneath you, it s beneath my ideal of what a strong 
 man should do." 
 
 Pemberton listened to her intently. He felt, rather 
 than perceived, the beauty of her voice, he was uplifted 
 by her earnestness. 
 
 "I don t say Mr. Hardwick was right," she continued, 
 "to send his wife to Mr. Hughes after he promised not 
 to do so. But, after all, what do you know about what 
 lay behind it? What do you know of their circum 
 stances that should make you so ready to judge? You 
 won t do this thing, will you?"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 91 
 
 Pemberton looked at her for a moment and then 
 walked over to her and held out his right hand. She 
 took it in her own, still looking at him fixedly. 
 
 "You won t do it?" she asked again. 
 
 "No," he said, and was strangely happy in his sub 
 mission. 
 
 "All right," she answered brightly, withdrawing her 
 hand from his. "That s fine. You ve made me very 
 happy." The radiant look she gave him filled him with 
 joy as he watched her leave the room. 
 
 When she had gone, he stood for a moment, a prey to 
 conflicting emotions. But it was only for a moment and 
 then his customary manner was again upon him. He 
 seated himself at his desk, picked up his telephone and 
 said: 
 
 "Send Mr. Hardwick to me." 
 
 A moment later he was informed that Mr. Hardwick 
 had not yet reached the office. Pemberton looked at his 
 watch and saw that it was not yet nine o clock. He 
 thought for a moment and then telephoned that he no 
 longer desired to see Mr. Hardwick. 
 
 His mail was then brought to him, not more than a 
 half dozen letters. He initialed all but one which he laid 
 away in one of the drawers in his desk. Calling a boy, he 
 directed him to distribute those which he had initialed. 
 
 This was the work of but a few minutes, and no sooner 
 was it finished than the head of the sales department 
 asked for and obtained an interview which engaged both 
 of them for the next two hours.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 HARDWICK was somewhat late in coming to 
 the office on this Monday morning. He was 
 quite variable in this respect, although he 
 devoutly believed himself to be the soul of punctuality. 
 His plans always took a careful account of the time he 
 proposed to use for any enterprise. The plan once made, 
 any interruption or delay was considered unavoidable 
 and of no effect upon the validity of his original intention 
 because it could not have been foreseen. Hardwick was 
 what may be called an optimist, his experience was of lit 
 tle service in his calculations of the future. If ninety-nine 
 of his projects failed to mature exactly as he expected, 
 that was no reason for him not to anticipate perfect 
 fruition for the hundredth. 
 
 As he hurriedly walked from the car to the office this 
 morning, he was turning over in his mind various 
 methods of explaining to Pemberton his wife s unauthor 
 ized petition to Hughes. It had seemed quite simple to 
 him before, but now, when it was actually to be done, it 
 developed extraordinary difficulty. It would not be easy 
 to admit that his word went for so little in his own house 
 hold. Such an admission would hurt his pride in many 
 ways. It was quite conceivable that it would open the 
 door to questions which, even if they were not actually 
 put into words, would cause him great embarrassment. 
 
 92
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 93 
 
 Of course, he could so arrange the facts which he had to 
 tell that it might be made to appear that the meeting 
 between Mrs. Hardwick and her uncle had been quite 
 accidental and that the subject of his salary had been 
 discussed as a result of some remark of Hughes which 
 had led her to comment on the difference between his 
 salary and that paid McNair. No, that wouldn t do. 
 It was too thin. It may be observed that Hardwick 
 would not have scrupled to lie about the matter if he 
 could have hit upon a dependable perversion or rear 
 rangement of the truth. But he had conscientious 
 scruples against being caught in a lie. He valued the 
 opinion of others far too much to be able to rest content 
 under the imputation of untruthfulness. 
 
 He was still uncertain as he entered the office and his 
 doubt troubled him. As he was opening his desk, the 
 thought came to him that he was foolish to try to decide 
 in advance what to say. He would go to Pemberton just 
 as soon as he had gone through his mail. When he was 
 in his presence, the right words would come. He hated 
 the whole business. If only his wife had not meddled. 
 
 As he went through the letters which were awaiting 
 him, he found that he was not really grasping their con 
 tents. There was a clamor in his mind which, when he 
 arrested the attention he was forcing on his correspond 
 ence, was a dull repetition of the question: What should 
 he say to Pemberton? He found himself growing nerv- 
 ousjan irritation seized him which he could not throw off.
 
 94 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 At last the letters had been looked at, one by one, 
 although he scarcely knew what they contained, and 
 then, feeling that he must rid himself of the incubus 
 which weighted him, he asked the operator to inquire 
 whether Mr. Pemberton could see him. Word came 
 promptly that Mr. Pemberton was engaged and could 
 not be disturbed for at least one hour. The news was an 
 instant balm to his spirits. A delay was just what he 
 felt he needed and, with great relief, he again went over 
 his letters, this time with sharp attention. 
 
 When he had mastered their contents, he called for 
 Miss Henderon and set promptly to work dictating. 
 The first few letters were easy to answer and there was 
 no pause between them. At last he came to one which 
 required some consideration, and, as he sat in thought, 
 Miss Henderson saw an opportunity for conversation 
 and embraced it. Hardwick answered her, at first with 
 little interest, but soon yielded to his own love of small 
 talk and momentarily forgot his business. Their talk 
 lasted only a few minutes and ceased when he again 
 picked up the letter he was engaged in answering. 
 Obedient to his gesture, Miss Henderson poised her 
 pencil, her attitude one of complete attention, when an 
 idea came to her. 
 
 "Have you seen Mr. Pemberton yet?" she asked. 
 
 Hardwick was completely unnerved by this simple 
 question. In view of the emotion which had so recently 
 controlled him, he was entirely taken aback by her
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 95 
 
 query. What did it mean? What did she know? Was it 
 possible that Hughes could have communicated with 
 Pemberton after all? He had a choking feeling as he 
 answered: 
 
 "No; why do you ask?" 
 
 Miss Henderson was busily regarding the finger nails 
 of her right hand and did not notice the intense interest 
 in his voice which he tried to conceal. She answered: 
 
 "Just as I was coming into the office I heard the 
 operator say that Mr. Pemberton wanted to see you. 
 I don t think you were here yet." 
 
 "Oh!" said Hardwick. He felt that he must think. 
 He could not go on with his dictation and, laying down 
 the letter, dismissed her. 
 
 What could it mean other than Pemberton s knowl 
 edge of Mrs. Hardwick s action? He made no doubt of 
 what would happen. As soon as Pemberton was ready, 
 he would send for him and discharge him. An infinite 
 misery seized him in which, panic stricken, he saw him 
 self without a position, crushed by an overwhelming 
 mass of debt, discredited, helpless, his family hi want. 
 He sat at his desk blankly, unconscious of his surround 
 ings, incapable of thought. 
 
 But the mood was too extreme to last, and as it began 
 to dissipate he heard Ruth Bernstein ask him a ques 
 tion. He looked up and, begging her pardon, asked her 
 to repeat it, explaining that he had been so intent upon 
 a certain matter that he had not been conscious of her 
 presence.
 
 96 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 
 
 She repeated her question, and as she did so he forced 
 himself, by a great effort, to take in what she said, 
 although a large part of his attention was still claimed 
 by the thoughts which had completely dominated him 
 but a moment before. 
 
 As they talked, he gradually regained mastery of his 
 mind and, before they were half through, he was ready 
 to laugh at his recent abject fear. If he must lose this 
 position, he d get another. After all, his life did not 
 depend entirely upon the favor of the business manager 
 of the Prescott Company. 
 
 When they had disposed of the matter which she had 
 brought to him, he asked her: 
 
 "Was Mr. Pemberton inquiring for me?" 
 
 "Yes," she answered, "but afterwards he said that 
 he had changed his mind. That was before you came in." 
 
 "You don t know what he wanted?" he asked. 
 
 She took refuge in a lie. 
 
 "No," she said slowly. 
 
 There was just a shade of doubt hi her tone, the least 
 bit imaginable; enough, however, to make him look at 
 her questioningly. But her face was inscrutable; she met 
 his gaze directly and he read a challenge in her eyes 
 which he could not meet, and turned away. She took this 
 as a dismissal and left him. 
 
 He picked up some papers from his desk and examined 
 them, without the ability, however, to fix his mind on 
 them. He knew that he would be unable to work until
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 97 
 
 this matter was off his mind. So, putting on his hat, he 
 told Ruth that he was going over to the printer to give 
 some instructions, and left the office. 
 
 In the street he felt better, and, as he walked along 
 rapidly, he found himself taking a clearer view of the 
 whole business. After all, nothing had happened with 
 which he could reproach himself. That much was clear 
 and his conscience was easy. As soon as he could see 
 Pemberton, he would tell him the whole story straight 
 forwardly. He would make no attempt to deceive him in 
 any way. If Pemberton chose to disbelieve him, if he 
 demanded his resignation, there was nothing to do but 
 find another position. It would be hard, particularly in 
 view of the questions the brevity of his connection with 
 the Prescott Company would bring, but that was just 
 his bad luck. And then anger at his wife seized him. What 
 had she ever done to help him? She was extravagant, 
 shiftless, lazy. Yes, lazy. Other men similarly situated 
 got along well. They seemed to spend more money than 
 he and they never got into debt. It must be because their 
 wives were really economical, while Florrie, meaning 
 well, no doubt, simply frittered away the money he 
 gave her, with the result that they were always in arrears 
 and had nothing to show for what they spent. He deter 
 mined to speak to her again, and this time he would 
 not allow her to sidetrack him by irrelevant answers. 
 But even as he made this resolution he had a vision of 
 their many previous talks on this subject, which had 
 invariably ended in his utter defeat.
 
 98 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 And then he came back to his impending interview 
 with Pemberton. He began to phrase his opening remarks 
 and soon found himself composing a fine, moving state 
 ment, eloquent in its complete simplicity. By this time 
 he was thoroughly master of himself and walked quickly 
 back to the office. As he entered, he asked the telephone 
 operator to see if Mr. Pemberton could give him a few 
 minutes. He had no sooner reached his desk than he was 
 told that he might come in at once. 
 
 Pemberton was sitting at his desk as usual with the 
 appearance of having nothing to do. He greeted Hard- 
 wick coolly and asked him to sit down. Hardwick did 
 so and was just about to begin his story when Pember 
 ton said: 
 
 "Mr. Hardwick, I ve decided to advance your salary 
 to the amount we paid McNair. It will date from the 
 first of the month." 
 
 Hardwick was so amazed that he could only stammer 
 a word of thanks. Through his mind ran the question: 
 What could have happened to bring such a thing about? 
 Was it possible that the quality of his work was really 
 appreciated? And with these questions came the cer 
 tainty that Uncle James could not have communicated 
 with Pemberton. 
 
 The latter paid no attention whatever to Hardwick s 
 thanks and went on unconcernedly: 
 
 "I don t want you to think that this has been brought 
 about in any way by the use of your wife s relationship
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 99 
 
 to Mr. Hughes and your appeal to him to advance you, 
 in the face of my request and your promise that you 
 would not bring this relation to bear on your connection 
 with the company. I resent this action on your part, and, 
 at first, I was inclined to ask for your resignation. But 
 I have determined to give you another chance, and, at 
 the same time, to remove the temptation from you " 
 
 Hardwick broke in here. "Mr. Pemberton," he said, 
 hi great confusion, "let me explain " 
 
 "Wait until I have finished," interrupted the other. 
 "Your work so far has been excellent. I have no doubt 
 that you have the ability to earn the higher salary and, 
 perhaps, even more. At the same time, I am not accus 
 tomed to having my orders disobeyed and I wish to give 
 you formal notice that the next time I won t be so 
 lenient." 
 
 "Mr. Pemberton," said Hardwick, "I don t want this 
 increase unless you think I m worth it. Of course I ll be 
 glad to have it. I need it. But I need your confidence 
 still more. I know I can make good in this job and even 
 if I don t get the five thousand now, it won t take me 
 long to convince you that I m actually worth it by pro 
 ducing the goods." 
 
 "That s all right," answered Pemberton. "That mat 
 ter s disposed of and we won t go back to it. And if 
 you ll excuse me " He got up from his chair, which was 
 the signal that the interview was over. 
 
 But Hardwick would not go. He felt he must clear
 
 100 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 himself of the charge of disobedience and unfaithfulness 
 to his promise. He also arose from his chair but did not 
 move away from it. 
 
 "One word before I go," he said hastily. "I did not 
 know that Mrs. Hardwick was going to speak to Mr. 
 Hughes about my salary. In fact, I particularly asked 
 her not to do so the evening of the day we came to 
 terms. It was done by her entirely without my 
 knowledge and consent. When I learned of it in a round 
 about way, I determined to speak to you at the first 
 opportunity to disclaim any responsibility and to ask 
 you to pay no attention to the request." 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Hardwick," said Pemberton, in a 
 tone which effectually closed the interview. "We ll say 
 no more about it." 
 
 As the door closed upon Hardwick, Pemberton was 
 convinced that his advertising manager was an accom 
 plished liar. He almost regretted his promise to Ruth, 
 but the thought of his joy in submitting to her came back 
 to him and changed this emotion to satisfaction.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 HARD WICK came away from his interview 
 with Pemberton with a sense of defeat. He 
 felt that he had not convinced him of his 
 complete innocence. The sharp closing of the interview 
 by Pemberton made him feel baffled, incapable, like a 
 cork in a strong current. But this feeling speedily left 
 him in his delight over the practical result of the inter 
 view. Besides, Pemberton had actually praised him and 
 had called him worthy of his increased salary. 
 
 He threw himself into his work that afternoon with 
 even greater zeal than he had yet shown, and when the 
 time came for him to go home, he felt that never in his 
 life had he done better. This was his opportunity, his 
 first real chance to demonstrate his ability. In the short 
 meeting of department managers during the afternoon, 
 he had taken a most active part and several of his sug 
 gestions had won general approval. 
 
 He came home in the gayest possible mood. He greeted 
 all of the family effusively, making no mention of the 
 cause of his happiness until they had nearly finished 
 their dinner. Then he told them, laying particular 
 emphasis on Pemberton s words of appreciation and 
 making no reference at all to the interposition of Uncle 
 James. Mrs. Hardwick was at a loss to account for 
 this. She had taken it for granted that the increased 
 
 101
 
 102 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 salary would not be offered immediately, and that when 
 it came it would be accounted for entirely by the re 
 quest or, as she took it, the order of her uncle. However, 
 she did not venture any remark on the subject, but con 
 gratulated Hardwickupon his good fortuneand promptly 
 mentioned a number of things which she said they 
 required and which she believed they were now in a 
 position to obtain. 
 
 Hardwick offered no objection in the presence of the 
 girls, principally because one of the prospective expen 
 ditures was Alice s college course. Besides, he had made 
 up his mind, he believed definitely, that their whole 
 living expense must be put on a rational basis, one that 
 would permit them gradually to emerge from the load 
 of debt that hung over them. He wished to discuss these 
 matters privately with his wife and, therefore, waited 
 until they had gone to their room for the night. 
 
 In the~meantime, as an outlet for his gay spirits, he 
 proposed that the family celebrate by going somewhere 
 for the evening. The girls promptly suggested moving 
 pictures, to which objection was urged by their mother 
 on the ground of the low intellectual plane of this form 
 of entertainment. Finally, she yielded to the unanimous 
 wish of the rest of the family, and they repaired to a 
 theatre hi the neighborhood, saw the whole program, 
 and ended the evening in a blaze of glory by indulging 
 in ice-cream sodas. 
 
 When they reached home, the girls went to bed in
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 103 
 
 high spirits and their parents retired into the privacy 
 of their bedroom. Hardwick sat down at once, and his 
 wife followed his example. She knew that he had some 
 thing to say to her and waited for him to begin. 
 
 "Florrie," he said, "now that we have this additional 
 income, we must devote ourselves to getting out of 
 debt. I ve been thinking over the matter all afternoon. 
 I ve figured up what we owe and how we ll be able to 
 pay it. It ll take time, of course, but I think we ll be 
 able to manage it inside of two years." He paused. 
 
 "How much do we owe?" she inquired. 
 
 He felt the coming storm and prepared himself to 
 meet it. 
 
 "Two thousand, eight hundred and thirty odd dol 
 lars," he said slowly. "Do you want to know the details 
 of it? I have a list here which I made up this afternoon." 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick waved this proposal to one side by a 
 magnificent gesture which was supposed to convey an 
 intimation of her contempt for sordid details. 
 
 "I should like to know," she said, her cackle in evi 
 dence, now intended to imply a patronizing pity for the 
 feebleness of her husband s intellect, "I should like to 
 know," she repeated, emphasizing each word, "how you 
 are going to pay nearly three thousand dollars of debt in 
 two years out of your income. That, unless I err in my 
 figures, would reduce our total expenditure to the 
 amount of your recent salary." 
 
 "Exactly," said Hardwick. He felt that irritation was
 
 104 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 gaining a measure of control over him. He determined 
 not to let it master him and added no explanation of his 
 answer, sure that silence was safer than speech. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick waited a moment for him to continue, 
 but, as he did not do so, she spoke: 
 
 "Henry, I do not understand you at all. You are well 
 aware of the fact that your salary of four thousand was 
 not sufficient to meet our extremely moderate expenses. 
 Everything is higher now, and yet you expect us to live 
 on even less. How do you propose to accomplish this?" 
 Her air was one of injury; it expressed a benevolent 
 disappointment. 
 
 "We re going to figure out just what we can have for 
 thirty-five hundred dollars, say three hundred a month, 
 and that s all we re going to spend." He spoke coolly, 
 with an appearance of settled determination which he 
 was far from feeling. 
 
 "And I suppose," said his wife, with unveiled sar 
 casm, "that the determination of these expenditures will 
 be in your hands. You will decide whether our dinner 
 will consist of veal cutlet or fried flounder; you will 
 make the selection of suitable, inexpensive vegetables; 
 your approval will be necessary for the purchase of a 
 bar of soap. Perhaps you may also choose the girls 
 wearing apparel. Of course, for mine, there will be no 
 occasion for the exercise of your judgment, for there will 
 be no accessions to my wardrobe under such circum 
 stances."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 105 
 
 "Don t be silly, Florrie," Hardwick put in at this 
 point. "Please don t make a farce of this thing. You 
 know very well that all I want to do is to determine in a 
 general way how much we ll spend for each of the vari 
 ous items, and see to it that the total comes within the 
 figure that we have to dispose of. And then, stick to it 
 in practice." 
 
 "I wash my hands of the whole business," said his 
 spouse, rising and beginning to unhook her dress with 
 an air of finality. "If my management of our household 
 fails to meet with your approval, if my careful economy 
 at every turn appears to you to be extravagance, there 
 is but one thing for me to do, and that is to ask to be 
 relieved from the responsibility of disbursing the 
 munificent sum which -you place at my disposal." 
 
 Hardwick was thoroughly angry. 
 
 "You can cut out all of that nonsense, if you please," 
 he said, not loudly but with an intensity and an appar 
 ent fixity of purpose which completely surprised Mrs. 
 Hardwick. "There s no use in pretending that you re 
 going to do something which you know very well 
 you won t do. Now, let s get down to brass tacks, and 
 see what we ve got to do." 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick saw that he was in earnest and that 
 it would be wise not to anger him. She had no doubt of 
 her ability to make her point finally, but, for the 
 present, it was inadvisable to push it. She sat down 
 again.
 
 106 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I wish you would not make use of those vulgar 
 expressions, Henry," she said in a tone which was 
 intended to convey her sincere desire to be of great 
 service to him. 
 
 Hardwick paid no attention to her remark and went 
 on with the subject of their expenditures. 
 
 "I want you to figure carefully just what we shall 
 need for our table, for ordinary household supplies, for 
 wages, coal, electric light, gas and so on. And then we 
 must consider our clothing. That s the sensible thing 
 to do, and then, when we know what our limit is, we 
 must not, under any circumstances, exceed it. You 
 agree, don t you?" he asked, anxiously, hoping that 
 she would fall in with his views. 
 
 "The principle is absolutely correct. It is exactly 
 what I have always done. Indeed, I have gone further. 
 In many cases I have come well within the figures 
 which I had set. I am quite sure, when we come to go 
 over our expenditures in detail, that you will be sur 
 prised at my ability to do so much with so little." 
 
 "I don t doubt that you ve done very well, Florrie, 
 but you ll admit that there is always room for improve 
 ment in anything. We ll go over the figures tomorrow 
 evening and make up our budget." 
 
 "Just as you say," she answered. The words were 
 compliance but the tone was not. Hardwick s anger 
 again flared up. 
 
 "There s another thing I want to talk to you about,"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 107 
 
 he said sharply. "You went to Uncle James and asked 
 him to have my pay increased after I had told you 
 definitely that I had given my word that such a thing 
 would not be done." 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was* unpleasantly surprised. She had 
 thought that Pemberton would not care to disclose the 
 fact that he. had been forced to raise her husband s 
 salary by the exercise of the authority of Uncle James. 
 She had contemplated with delight the satisfaction that 
 would be hers when the time came for her to tell dear 
 Henry what she had done for him. And here he was 
 upbraiding her, in a tone of anger, for an action which 
 she had undertaken, as she saw it, solely in his interest. 
 
 "I suppose you thought," he went on bitterly, "that 
 you were helping me; that I was such a poor specimen 
 that, without your help and Uncle James , I d be 
 entirely incapable of making headway in this job. But 
 do you know what you almost succeeded in accom 
 plishing?" He paused and looked at her, but she did 
 not answer. 
 
 "You nearly had me discharged. That s what your 
 meddling brought about and no more. Pemberton told 
 me that his first impulse was to ask for my resignation, 
 but that he had been so well satisfied with my work 
 that he determined to give me another chance." 
 
 "And you believed that?" she asked scornfully. 
 
 "Certainly. You don t know Pemberton. He s as hard 
 as nails. And, besides, he s the whole show at the
 
 108 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Prescott Company. Uncle James has as much to say 
 as you have. He s just a figurehead. But the real boss 
 is Pemberton. They tell me down there that the whole 
 board of directors just sit there and listen to him and 
 0. K. every proposition he puts up to them. I can see 
 Uncle James making him do anything he didn t want 
 to do," he added derisively. 
 
 "Then why did he raise your salary just after Uncle 
 James spoke to him about it?" she asked, really curious. 
 
 "As he put it," answered Hardwick, "it was to place 
 me beyond even the temptation to solicit Uncle James 
 help." 
 
 "Well, I don t care what they say about Uncle James 
 being a mere figurehead," replied Mrs. Hardwick, "nor 
 how capable this man Pemberton may be, the fact 
 stands out that you received your increase when Uncle 
 James asked for it, and I feel that that is sufficient 
 evidence." She uttered these words with infinite self- 
 complacency, again feeling quite justified in regarding 
 her action as purely benevolent. 
 
 "You don t seem to remember what a pitiful figure 
 I cut in the whole proceeding," said Hardwick. "I 
 give my word that I will not do a certain thing and 
 then you go and do it. Either I m a liar or my word 
 goes for nothing in my own household." He was quiet 
 now, no longer angry, but deeply hurt. 
 
 "When I have to choose between the starvation of 
 my little ones," Mrs. Hardwick had resumed her gran-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 109 
 
 diloquent manner, "and observing a promise unworthily 
 extorted from one whose chief concern should be the 
 welfare of these children (I say nothing of the welfare 
 of their mother, she is quite accustomed to take second 
 place), I do not hesitate. I am sorry you are so thin- 
 skinned, so anxious to curry favor with persons like this 
 man Pemberton, even at the sacrifice of your family, 
 but, if you are, that is no reason why I should fail in 
 my clear duty." She arose and proceeded with her dis 
 robing, while he still remained in his chair moodily silent. 
 Presently he also arose and, undressing rapidly, went 
 to bed. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick always took quite some time to com 
 plete her arrangements for the night, and was used to 
 finding Hardwick asleep when she was finally ready. 
 Tonight, however, he was lying in bed with wide-open 
 eyes, with no sign of drowsiness upon him. Mrs. Hard- 
 wick s thoughts had been most pleasant while she was 
 undressing; she enjoyed her final victory and was dis 
 posed to be magnanimous to her defeated opponent. 
 
 As soon as she was in bed, she said: 
 
 "I ve been thinking about our obligations, my dear 
 Henry, and it occurs to me that it would be a wise 
 thing to borrow from your father a sufficient sum to 
 discharge all of these debts. All that he has will even 
 tually come to you and your sister, so that it will be a 
 mere anticipation. Besides, you could pay him interest, 
 so that he would be quite as well off."
 
 110 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "You forget that I already owe him nearly five 
 thousand dollars without counting the interest." 
 
 "I had no idea it was so large a sum," answered Mrs. 
 Hardwick, "but what is the difference? You are his 
 only son and I am quite sure that he will be delighted 
 to help you out of your difficulties." 
 
 "I m ashamed to go to him again. He s by no means 
 a rich man. Nearly everything he s got is invested in 
 the farm and since mother s death he s been none too 
 successful. I wouldn t have the face to ask him." 
 
 "That s you all over," said Mrs. Hardwick. "You d 
 let your children starve hi the gutter rather than hurt 
 your silly pride by asking for what is actually yours by 
 right. I don t mean that you re to make a special 
 errand of this business. When we spend our two weeks 
 with father this summer, you can bring up the matter 
 very easily. I m sure you won t have to do more than 
 mention it to bring him to offer the help you want." 
 
 "Perhaps so," answered Hardwick, and turned over 
 in bed as a signal that he wished to go to sleep. Since 
 the suggestion of his wife did not call for immediate 
 action, there was no occasion to bother about it at 
 present. Perhaps it would be as she said, the help 
 might come without the necessity of making a direct 
 request. It wasn t such a poor scheme after all.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 A half past five o clock, on an evening of early 
 September, in this year, Mrs. Regina Bernstein, 
 widow, of apparently indeterminate age, al 
 though surely more than thirty-five, came languidly into 
 the living room of her flat and seated herself by the win 
 dow. She was slender, and of somewhat less than average 
 height. Her dark hair was arranged most demurely, 
 combed back tightly over her temples; her features 
 were quite regular; her cheeks were thin, and the 
 general effect of her face was that it was narrow. 
 Perhaps this was due in part to the manner in which 
 her hair was dressed. She seemed frail, the pallor of 
 her complexion emphasized by the unadorned sombre- 
 ness of her simple black gown. Her general air was what 
 would be called aristocratic, and the languor of her 
 motions accentuated this impression. 
 
 It had been a mild day and the chill of the evening 
 had not as yet made itself felt. Still, Mrs. Bernstein 
 wore a light silk shawl, and, as she seated herself, she 
 drew it around her rather tightly as though she were 
 in need of its warmth. She appeared to be in deep 
 contemplation, although, from time to time, her glance 
 wandered about the room. A close observer would have 
 noted that she did not actually recognize the furnishings 
 upon which her glance rested, as she apparently passed 
 
 in
 
 112 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 in review the various objects of use and adornment, 
 which filled but did not crowd the apartment. 
 
 And yet, in a manner, the room was crowded, although 
 there was not much in it. A davenport, several chairs, 
 a table on which stood a lamp and a few books, a 
 modest bookcase, well filled with a variety of volumes 
 which somehow had the air of having been read. That 
 was all of the furniture. What there was of it was in 
 excellent taste, not expensive but surely not cheap. 
 Not a pretentious array, and, although the room was 
 small, a consideration of these items would compel 
 the decision that they were neither too many nor too 
 large for it. 
 
 On the walls, papered in a neutral buff, were hung 
 a number of neatly framed prints, all of them reproduc 
 tions of pictures of acknowledged merit, and two large 
 portraits in oil, heavily framed in gold. It was these 
 two pictures which crowded the room. They simply 
 shouted for attention, and they monopolized the view 
 of the casual beholder. They represented, or rather 
 misrepresented, a man and a woman. The artist who 
 had painted them must have had some ocular defect 
 which made him insensitive to perspective, and another 
 which interfered with his accurate observation of color. 
 Stark, staring portraits they were, unnatural, impos 
 sible. They looked ancient, utterly out of date, although 
 obviously they were not more than thirty years old; 
 the costume of the woman determined that.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 113 
 
 But Mrs. Bernstein was used to them. She no longer 
 saw them; they were part of the wall and they imposed 
 themselves upon her consciousness only when their 
 frames required dusting. As she sat there, absorbed in 
 thought, she was not conscious of her physical sur 
 roundings, even the traffic of the street below her did 
 not reach her mind. 
 
 She had been sitting there for fully fifteen minutes 
 when the sound of a key, inserted in the lock, caused her 
 to look up attentively. Immediately the door opened 
 and Ruth Bernstein entered. But a Ruth Bernstein 
 totally different from Hardwick s assistant. The 
 demureness was all gone, and, in its place, an alacrity, a 
 vivacity that bespoke youth, health, happiness. 
 
 "Hello," she said gaily, coming to her mother and 
 kissing her, "how were you today?" 
 
 "Not so well," answered Mrs. Bernstein. There was 
 a plaintive note in her voice, almost querulous. 
 
 "What seemed to be the matter?" asked Ruth 
 solicitously. 
 
 "It s very hard to say. I ve been just miserable. I 
 haven t felt able to do a single thing. I m as weak as 
 a cat." 
 
 "Have you been taking your medicine?" asked Ruth, 
 who had taken off her hat and had come over and 
 seated herself on a footstool beside Mrs. Bernstein s 
 chair. 
 
 "No, not today," was the answer, "I don t think
 
 114 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 that medicine s doing me one bit of good. I feel much 
 worse when I take it." 
 
 "Was the doctor here?" 
 
 "No, and I m getting tired of him. He s so unsym 
 pathetic. I told him the other day that I had been 
 reading about Bright s disease and that I thought the 
 symptoms which were mentioned coincided almost 
 exactly with my own." 
 
 "Well?" asked Ruth, as her mother paused. 
 
 "He just laughed at me. I was so mortified that I 
 didn t know what to say. I was so put out that I 
 couldn t tell you at first. But what he said next was 
 worse." 
 
 "What was that?" 
 
 "He said that there wasn t anything the matter with 
 me, and the sooner that I agreed with him the quicker 
 I d be well. Did you ever hear anything so ridiculous?" 
 Mrs. Bernstein looked her indignation. 
 
 "Well, mother, there s something in what he says. 
 You know the first step towards getting well is believing 
 that you re going to. It s a great help." 
 
 "I ve heard that before," answered Mrs. Bernstein, 
 "but it doesn t apply to my case. Nobody can tell me 
 anything about myself. I know there s something 
 terribly wrong with me. I m just miserable all of the 
 time." A tear trickled down her cheek. 
 
 Ruth s arms were about her mother s neck imme 
 diately. "There!" she said, "Don t pay any attention
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 115 
 
 to that old fool of a doctor. We ll call in another. We ll 
 go to some big specialist downtown, someone who ll 
 know just what to do for you." She kissed and patted 
 her mother just as one would a child, and presently 
 Mrs. Bernstein was calmer. 
 
 When her mother was again in moderate spirits, she 
 was seldom really cheerful for more than a few minutes 
 at a time, Ruth began upon the subject which interested 
 her most actively at the moment. 
 
 "What have we got for dinner?" she asked. 
 
 "There s a steak, and I thought we d have some 
 French fried potatoes, and there s lettuce and a cante- 
 loupe. I pared the potatoes and washed the lettuce, but 
 I didn t have the strength to do any more." 
 
 "That s all right. I don t mind cooking," answered 
 Ruth brightly, "just wait til I put on my apron and 
 then you come into the kitchen and we ll talk while I 
 get things ready. I won t be a moment." She ran out 
 of the room. 
 
 A few minutes later she reappeared, her dress 
 entirely covered by a long apron. "Come, mother," 
 she said, and went into the kitchenette, a tiny little 
 room, not much larger than an average closet. Mrs. 
 Bernstein followed her, and took a seat just outside 
 of the door for the very good reason that if both of 
 them entered, it would have been impossible for either 
 of them to move. 
 
 Ruth set about the preparation of the meal, gaily
 
 116 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 humming a tune. For a while her mother sat in silence, 
 but presently she spoke: 
 
 "Your Aunt Sarah was here today." 
 
 "Well, what did that old busybody have to say?" 
 asked Ruth cheerfully. 
 
 "Oh! Ruth!" expostulated Mrs. Bernstein. "That s 
 not respectful to your father s sister." 
 
 Ruth laughed. "It isn t my fault that she s my 
 father s sister, is it?" Mrs. Bernstein made a gesture of 
 deprecation, but said nothing, so Ruth continued. 
 "And it surely isn t my fault that she s a busybody. 
 What was she complaining about today?" 
 
 "She wasn t complaining about anything. She " 
 Mrs. Bernstein paused. 
 
 "Well, what did she have to say?" 
 
 "Oh! nothing in particular." 
 
 "Didn t she say something about me? Something 
 about my getting married, didn t she?" 
 
 "She was talking about Horace Gerson. He s a 
 splendid fellow, everybody likes him " 
 
 "And he s so successful in business," put in Ruth, 
 rather sarcastically. 
 
 "Well, that s nothing against him, is it?" asked her 
 mother. 
 
 "Oh! I don t mind Horace and I surely am glad he s 
 getting along, provided he lets me alone. I don t dislike 
 him except when I m with him and then he just bores 
 me stiff."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 117 
 
 "I don t see what s the matter with him. He s very 
 well educated." 
 
 "You mean he went to college. That doesn t mean 
 that he s educated." 
 
 "He s as well educated as Fred Pemberton," said 
 Mrs. Bernstein. There was just enough tartness in her 
 tone to make her remark unpleasant to Ruth. 
 
 "That depends," she answered. "Fred never went to 
 college unless you count a term in a business college. 
 Education is a pretty big thing, and some men might 
 spend their whole lives hi a college or university and 
 not be educated when they were through. Fred doesn t 
 know a lot of things that I suppose are very nice to 
 know, but he s got a mind. He s a real man." 
 
 "You re not going to marry him, are you Ruth?" 
 asked her mother anxiously. 
 
 "I don t know," answered her daughter seriously. 
 "Sometimes I think I will and sometimes I think I 
 won t." 
 
 "I don t approve of mixed marriages," said Mrs. 
 Bernstein. "I don t think they bring happiness." 
 
 "Well, mother," answered Ruth, brightly, "we 
 won t have to settle that this evening anyway. So let s 
 talk about something else." 
 
 But Mrs. Bernstein was not to be put off. "I don t 
 see what you find to admire in him anyway/ she said. 
 
 "Oh! There s a lot about him to admire. For one 
 thing, he s the most masterful man I ve ever met. He
 
 118 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 just naturally takes first place, no matter whom he s 
 with. Why, down at the office " 
 
 "But when he s here," interrupted Mrs. Bernstein, 
 "he scarcely has a word to say to me. He doesn t even 
 half listen to me when I talk to him. I don t know 
 how he is with you, but he s a regular dummy when 
 I m with him." 
 
 "He s not much on ordinary small talk, I ll admit," 
 answered Ruth. "He has no patience for it. Things are 
 too real for him; he s too intense." 
 
 "But what does he talk about to you?" asked her 
 mother. 
 
 "Lots of things. About people mostly. He has the 
 most wonderful understanding of people. He just 
 puts his finger on their weaknesses. When he starts on 
 that subject I m just spellbound. But here, the steak s 
 ready now and if you ll move into the dining room 
 I ll have dinner on the table in a jiffy." 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein did as she was asked and, in a few 
 minutes, they were seated at the table enjoying their 
 plain but substantial meal. Both of them ate with relish 
 and, if the elder lady was as much of an invalid as she 
 claimed, she was fortunate in the fact that her ailment, 
 whatever it might be, did not affect her appetite. 
 
 They ate in silence for a while, a silence broken only 
 by remarks incidental to their present occupation, 
 remarks entirely necessary. When the fine edge of 
 their appetites was worn off, they fell into conversation, 
 Mrs. Bernstein beginning with:
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 119 
 
 "Mrs. Williams stopped in for a minute this morning. 
 What do you think she wanted?" 
 
 "I suppose she wanted to borrow some butter or an 
 egg," answered Ruth with a smile. Mrs. Williams lived 
 in the flat immediately over the Bernsteins, and was 
 given to running out of necessary supplies at short 
 notice. 
 
 "No," answered Mrs. Bernstein seriously, "she asked 
 me to join her Red Cross Auxiliary. What do you think 
 of that?" 
 
 "I think it would be fine," answered Ruth, enthu 
 siastically. 
 
 "Do you think I m strong enough?" asked her 
 mother anxiously. 
 
 "How often would you have to go?" 
 
 "One day a week. Mrs. Williams said a half day 
 would be enough." 
 
 "I think it would be splendid. It would take you out 
 of yourself." 
 
 "Well, I don t know about that," said Mrs. Bernstein, 
 doubtfully. "But I d really like to do something to help 
 in the war." 
 
 "That s why it would be such a fine thing for you. I 
 wish you d try it." 
 
 "I think I will. I told Mrs. Williams I d let her know 
 to-morrow."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MRS. BERNSTEIN returned from her first 
 afternoon s attendance at the Red Cross 
 Auxiliary in a state of high enthusiasm. Ruth 
 had come home a quarter of an hour earlier and was 
 busy in the kitchenette when her mother entered. 
 Instead of the usual complaint which met her daughter s 
 inquiry as to her health, she launched immediately into 
 a recital of her impressions. 
 
 "It s simply wonderful, Ruth, the way those women 
 work and the good they do. And they re not ordinary 
 women either. Some of them are rich, they come and 
 go in their automobiles. They re all very friendly. It 
 just seems as though this war was going to make us 
 all more democratic. Mrs. L. Percival Sedley s the 
 chairman. You know what a howling swell she is. 
 Well, she just went around and talked to everybody 
 in the sweetest way, she put on no airs at all. And there 
 was a friend of hers there who was with her all of the 
 time, she just sort of danced attendance on her. Let me 
 see, what was her name? Oh! yes; Mrs. Hard wick, 
 Mrs. Henry W. Hardwick. I ve never heard of her, but 
 I imagine she must be pretty swell too. I don t judge 
 from the way she looked, because she was really rather 
 dowdy, but then that s the way with a lot of people 
 whose position in society is assured " 
 
 120
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 121 
 
 "Mrs. Henry W. Hardwick?" put in Ruth, "I 
 wonder " 
 
 But her mother was so much interested in telling of 
 her experiences of the afternoon that she did not notice 
 the interruption and went right on. 
 
 "You know we make surgical dressings. You ve no 
 idea how particular you have to be. You can t just cut 
 out things and slap them together. Everything has to 
 be measured carefully and folded to fit a certain size. 
 And then they have to conserve the material too. 
 You can t just cut out the piece you want any way. 
 It all has to be figured out so that you get the most 
 possible out of every yard. It takes some very careful 
 counting. Just think, you have to get three pieces 
 thirteen inches wide out of material that s thirty-eight 
 inches. I don t know just how they do it. They were 
 having a long discussion about it this afternoon and I 
 didn t really hear how it was decided. Mrs. Hardwick 
 was telling me some of the difficulties they have. It 
 seems that the main headquarters of the Red Cross is 
 run by a lot of regular dummies. They give orders to 
 have things made a certain way and when they re made 
 that way they calmly tell you that that isn t right and 
 they have to be made all over again. Today we were 
 making over some little bags that were made too big 
 in the first place and we were making them smaller. 
 I don t know what they d do if they were made too 
 small in the first place, you couldn t make them larger 
 without wasting some material."
 
 122 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Don t you suppose," asked Ruth, "that the time 
 wasted in making those bags over might not be worth 
 more than the material?" 
 
 "You don t understand," answered Mrs. Bernstein, 
 "nobody s paid anything. It isn t as though we were 
 paid for our time." 
 
 "Oh! I see," said Ruth. But what she meant her 
 mother to understand was not her real thought. She 
 saw the futility of attempting to communicate that. 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein talked continuously until they began 
 their dinner. Even then, although she ate with her 
 usual good appetite, she kept up with her story of the 
 afternoon s happenings. It was not until they were 
 quite through that she remembered that she was an 
 invalid. She got up from the table and walked into the 
 living room, where she sank into a chair, and sighed 
 deeply. 
 
 "What s the matter?" called Ruth from the dining 
 room, where she was clearing up the dinner things. 
 
 "Oh! I feel so weak. I m afraid it was too much for 
 me." 
 
 "You ll feel better in a minute or two. Just sit there 
 quietly." 
 
 "Can t you come in here and sit with me for a little 
 while? Maybe if you talked to me I d feel better. You 
 can clear up a little later this evening." Mrs. Bernstein s 
 tone was most plaintive. 
 
 "I m sorry," answered Ruth, "but I ll have to hustle. 
 Mr. Pemberton s going to call this evening."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 123 
 
 "Why didn t you tell me before?" asked her mother, 
 rather querulously. 
 
 "I was so much interested in what you were telling 
 me that I really didn t think of it." 
 
 "I wish you had selected another evening." 
 
 "Why?" asked Ruth. She felt her mother was rather 
 unreasonable. 
 
 "You might have known that I d be worn out after 
 spending the day at the Auxiliary." 
 
 Ruth came to the door of the dining room and looked 
 at Mrs. Bernstein. "Would you like me to call him 
 up and tell him I d rather he didn t come tonight be 
 cause you re not feeling well?" she asked. 
 
 "I wouldn t hear of it," cried her mother. "You did 
 that the last time he was to come. I don t want him 
 to think I m always sick." 
 
 "Very well," replied Ruth and went out into the 
 kitchenette. 
 
 She returned in about half an hour to find her mother 
 still sitting hi the chair. She no longer looked uncom 
 fortable or unhappy, she was sleeping quite peacefully. 
 
 Ruth smiled indulgently when she saw her. Noise 
 lessly she went through the room setting things to 
 rights and then went to her own room to dress. When 
 she reappeared, Mrs. Bernstein was awake and surprised 
 to see her daughter dressed. 
 
 "Are you dressed already?" she inquired. "You 
 couldn t have been a minute."
 
 124 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Oh! yes, I was. You ve been asleep." 
 
 "No, I haven t. I just closed my eyes for a minute. 
 What time is it?" 
 
 "Quarter after eight. He ll be here soon." And then 
 the bell rang. 
 
 Pemberton came in, his usual serious expression 
 lightened by a smile. He greeted Mrs. Bernstein with 
 deference and inquired as to her health. 
 
 "I ve been just miserable," answered the sufferer in 
 a tone of deep conviction. 
 
 Pemberton tried to assume an air of solicitude which 
 he was far from feeling. 
 
 "What seems to be the matter?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh! I can t imagine. I haven t the least bit of 
 strength. I can t make the least effort without getting 
 all tired out. I spent to-day at the Red Cross and it was 
 too much for me. Ruth can tell you that I was com 
 pletely worn out when I came home. It s dreadful to 
 be so weak all of the time, I just feel as though I were 
 good for nothing." 
 
 "What does your doctor say?" asked Pemberton. He 
 was utterly bored but believed that he was bound to 
 display interest. 
 
 "I have no patience with doctors. They re all alike. 
 They have their pills and their medicines and their 
 talk. They may be all right for some things, but a 
 case like mine is beyond them. I thought the other 
 day that I might be suffering from Blight s disease.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 125 
 
 I had looked it up and found that my symptoms were 
 exactly what the book said, but when I tried to tell 
 them to my doctor he wouldn t even listen to me. He 
 almost called me a fool and as much as told me that 
 nothing at all was the matter with me. The whole 
 trouble is that he isn t interested or that he doesn t 
 understand my case and pretends that nothing is wrong. 
 I suppose that I ll get well eventually by myself and 
 then he ll claim all the credit for it. But I don t want to 
 go on suffering one moment more than is necessary 
 and there ought to be some doctor who would under 
 stand my case and save me all of this pain and anxiety." 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein would undoubtedly have kept up this 
 patter on her favorite subject indefinitely had it not 
 been that Ruth caught a look in Pemberton s face that 
 indicated to her most plainly that he was being unduly 
 bored by her mother s recital of her ills. She said: 
 
 "I want mother to consult a specialist on nervous 
 diseases. Don t you think she ought?" 
 
 At the first sound of Ruth s voice Pemberton was 
 all attention. 
 
 "By all means," he said to her, and then turning to 
 Mrs. Bernstein, "You ought to consult Dr. Franklin." 
 
 This was the signal for a new speech by that lady 
 in which she cited a number of uninteresting and 
 unconvincing legends, serious errors chargeable to 
 medical specialists. Again Ruth had to intervene and, 
 finally, Mrs. Bernstein asked to be excused and retired 
 to her room.
 
 126 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Do you think your mother is really sick?" Pember- 
 ton asked of Ruth after they had heard the door close. 
 
 "I don t really know what s the matter," answered 
 she, seriously. "There must be something. No one 
 could keep on complaining constantly for nothing." 
 
 "I suppose not," said Pemberton, thoughtfully. He 
 was silent for a moment and then added: "Perhaps it s 
 just the need of complaining that s the matter. I don t 
 know just how that would be treated, but I suppose a 
 man like Franklin has many such cases. I had an 
 aunt who was always saying that she was sick, but 
 nobody ever paid much attention to her, least of all 
 her husband." 
 
 Ruth was much interested. Pemberton scarcely ever 
 mentioned any of his family. All that she knew was 
 little more than the death of both of his parents while 
 he was a boy of less than ten. "Tell me about her," she 
 said. 
 
 "There isn t much to tell except that," he said slowly 
 as though he were trying to remember something that 
 the thought of his aunt brought to his mind. "I could 
 tell you more about her husband, my mother s only 
 brother. He was a fine old snoozer." 
 
 "How?" she asked. 
 
 "He was the man I worked for from the time I left 
 school until I was thirty years old. He s the one man that 
 actually used me. He took it out of me for fair." He 
 paused, a mirthless smile on his lips. Ruth was silent.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 127 
 
 She knew that questioning would bring her less than 
 waiting. Presently Pemberton began again: 
 
 " I lived with my uncle after my parents death. When 
 I was through at the high school he gave me a job in his 
 hardware store. I worked there for about three years 
 learning the business and getting the hang of things. He 
 paid me rotten wages and took a good part of them for 
 my board. I didn t kick because I really didn t know any 
 better. Anyway, when I was nineteen I knew enough 
 about the business for him to leave it mostly to me to 
 run. I seemed to take to it naturally. It wasn t long after 
 that before I had got it into much better shape than it 
 had ever been in before. I kept the stock up-to-date. 
 We always had things when people wanted them. Before, 
 we could scarcely ever fill a mixed order complete. And 
 I got better prices from the manufacturers and the job 
 bers we bought from. 
 
 "In a little while you could see our trade increase. 
 Carpenters and builders who had never dealt with us 
 before came to us, attracted by the good looks of the 
 place (I kept it in apple pie order) and our large assort 
 ment. That gave me the idea that we could get the call 
 with a lot more people, so I induced my uncle to let me 
 do some advertising. Not much at first, but it didn t 
 take long to get quite a number of new customers, and 
 then it was easy to get the old man to let me go as far 
 as I liked. The business kept on growing and one day, 
 when I was about twenty-one, I heard my uncle tell a
 
 128 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 friend of his that he had made nearly fifteen thousand 
 dollars the last year. Think of that amount of money to 
 make in a retail hardware store in a medium size town 
 nearly fifteen years ago. Well, that put an idea into my 
 head. The old snoozer was paying me just sixteen dollars 
 a week at the time. I had never bothered about my pay. 
 I just looked on it as my own business and enjoyed the 
 work I did. You might say I enjoyed it, for it was the 
 only thing I ever did, I worked nearly every night 
 except when I was going to the business college. I only 
 went there to get the hang of bookkeeping so that our 
 bookkeeper couldn t put anything over me. 
 
 "Well, as I said, that gave me an idea. Here was I, 
 running the whole business, and my uncle taking it easy 
 and I was getting eight hundred a year and he was draw 
 ing down fifteen thousand. I spoke to him about it." 
 Pemberton paused and the mirthless smile again played 
 about his lips. He seemed scarcely conscious of Ruth s 
 presence and told his story with no apparent effort to 
 make an impression on her. It was as if he were simply 
 remembering vocally. But Ruth s interest was intense; 
 she hung on his every word, completely absorbed. 
 
 "Well," Pemberton resumed, "Uncle George didn t 
 take very kindly to the proposition of raising my pay. 
 He told me that I was his heir, he had no children of his 
 own, and that, some day, the whole business would be 
 mine. I told him I didn t want to wait for any dead man s 
 shoes, and that I wanted something now. The upshot of
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 129 
 
 the whole discussion was that my wages were raised to 
 twenty-five dollars, and I was to have an interest in the 
 business in a few years. 
 
 " I was easy. I had had no other experience and as I 
 never talked about my own affairs to anyone, I got no 
 points from the outside. I took the old boy s guff as 
 though it were gospel and figured that whatever I could 
 do to increase the business would come to me even 
 tually, because my uncle was one of the tightest proposi 
 tions that ever walked. He didn t spend one cent more 
 the last year of his life, and that year he made over thirty 
 thousand dollars, than he did when his whole income was 
 less than three thousand. 
 
 "After a while, I figured there were a number of lines 
 that we could go into without materially increasing our 
 expenses. We went into them and our business took 
 another jump. Then I got the idea of opening stores in 
 other towns, and that helped along too. By hard work 
 I got my salary raised from time to time, and when I was 
 twenty-five I braced my uncle for the interest in the 
 business which he had promised me. But he put me off, 
 giving me a raise in pay each time, until finally, when 
 I was about twenty-nine, he agreed to take me in and 
 give me a one-fifth interest on my thirtieth birthday, 
 which was then about six months off. He even went 
 so far as to have the papers drawn up. 
 
 "And then, just one month before my birthday, he 
 was killed in an automobile accident. He left no will,
 
 130 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 so everything went to his wife. She was sick in bed at 
 the time, but she agreed to carry out his promise. And 
 then she died, also without a will, and all of my uncle s 
 money and business went to her relatives. One of her 
 brothers took the business and offered me a good salary 
 to stay, but wouldn t hear of giving me the promised 
 interest. I quit." 
 
 Pemberton ceased talking and looked at Ruth. For 
 the first time, he was aware of her intense interest, and 
 it gave him a thrill of keen pleasure. He saw in her 
 expression evidence of his ability to sway her, to compel 
 her moods. Ruth was vaguely conscious of his feeling of 
 triumph, was somewhat embarrassed by it and hastened 
 to speak. 
 
 " It seems queer to think of anyone getting the better 
 of you," she said, smiling, just a touch of banter in her 
 tone. 
 
 "Not many have done it," he replied. "There s one 
 other person that has." He paused and looked at her 
 fixedly. She was rather uneasy under his gaze, she knew 
 very well what was coming. "That person s you," he 
 went on, "and the worst of it is that I know it and must 
 let you have your own way about it." 
 
 "You wouldn t put me in your uncle s class, would 
 you?" she asked, jokingly. 
 
 But he was in earnest. "Certainly not. You re in a 
 class all by yourself." 
 
 "I don t know whether to take that as a compliment 
 or not."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 131 
 
 "Yes you do, when I say it," he said slowly, and then 
 impulsively, "Ruth " 
 
 But Ruth did not want to hear what she knew he was 
 about to say. She held up her finger, and said mock- 
 seriously, "Remember your promise." 
 
 "Why did you exact that promise?" he asked, sud 
 denly dejected. 
 
 "Please, Fred," she answered coaxingly. "Don t let s 
 go into that now. Give me the time I asked for. Let me 
 make up my mind completely so that I can be sure I ll 
 have no regrets." 
 
 He got up from his chair and walked over to the 
 bookcase and made a show of reading the titles of some 
 of the volumes on the top shelf. She sat and watched him 
 in silence. 
 
 Presently he turned and came back to his chair. 
 "Just as you say," he said in a manner which implied 
 forced resignation. 
 
 "Just one word more," said Ruth, "and then we ll 
 talk of other things. If you want me, you want all of me. 
 There must be no doubts, no questions. I must be sure 
 that I can come to you whole-hearted, ready to put my 
 whole future in your hands without regret of any kind. 
 You see, don t you?" There was an anxious note in her 
 voice as she finished. Pemberton did not answer, but 
 looked at her intently as though he would read in her 
 face all of the emotion which lay back of her words. 
 
 "Oh! I wanted to tell you that mother met a Mrs.
 
 132 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Henry W. Hardwick at the Red Cross today. I wonder 
 whether she could be the wife of our Mr. Hardwick. 
 Do you know her?" 
 
 " No," he answered, " I ve never met any of his family. 
 He asked me if I would be willing to come to dinner at 
 his house, that was the first day I met him, but I put 
 him off. I never go out. I don t enjoy it. I never know 
 what to say and what most people talk about doesn t 
 interest me in the least." 
 
 "Don t you think that s just because you re not used 
 to meeting people socially? Don t you think you may be 
 missing a whole lot of pleasure?" 
 
 "Perhaps I am, but if I don t know it, I guess I m 
 no worse off. I ve never had the opportunity to culti 
 vate the social graces and I m too old now to learn. At 
 any rate, from what I see of people in business, I d say 
 they re a pretty scurvy lot. I wouldn t trust one in ten 
 further than I could see them." 
 
 "That s because you ve cultivated a habit of sus 
 picion. You don t trust anybody." 
 
 "I d trust you with anything," he said with convic 
 tion. 
 
 Ruth was of no mind to pursue the conversation in 
 that direction and led him to talk of other things. He 
 followed her lead and the rest of the evening was devoted 
 to talk which avoided their mutual relation. 
 
 When he left at ten o clock, he took with him a sense 
 of bafflement, of having been held at arm s length, which
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 133 
 
 mitigated but could not greatly diminish the deep satis 
 faction which he always experienced in her presence. 
 
 Ruth closed the door behind him and went over to a 
 mirror which hung on the wall near the door. She gazed 
 at her reflection for some time, and then, with a sigh, 
 turned away, and, after extinguishing the lights, went 
 to her room.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE Hardwicks came through the summer with 
 out undergoing any perceptible change, if 
 exception is made for the physical growth of the 
 two girls. The increase in their income produced no 
 appreciable betterment in their mode of life, whether 
 expressed in food, raiment, beauty or comfort, or any 
 sensible diminution of their debts. The budget upon 
 which Hardwick had insisted was never made. Instead, 
 both he and his wife talked economy for about ten days 
 and then the subject was dropped. From time to time, 
 an old debt was reduced or discharged, and a new one 
 contracted to take its place. But they were more or 
 less used to it. Mrs. Hardwick was totally unconcerned 
 and her husband was indifferent and worried by turns. 
 Most of the time he did not think of the matter. 
 
 Their usual visit to Hardwick senior s farm took 
 place in the last weeks of August. The family spent ten 
 days there, each of which began with the resolution on 
 the part of Henry Hardwick to ask his father for a loan 
 and each of which ended without his having found the 
 necessary courage. Mrs. Hardwick prodded him from 
 day to day upon his dilly-dallying but went no further. 
 She did not dare to broach the subject directly to her 
 father-in-law, because she knew that his dislike of her 
 was basic, ineradicable. The only condition upon which 
 
 134
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 135 
 
 they could meet was what might be described as armed 
 neutrality. Any overt action on the part of either 
 would be bound to result in immediate open belligerency. 
 
 After their return to the city, Hardwick wrote to his 
 father asking for a loan of three thousand dollars. He 
 set forth in his letter his recent increase in income and 
 his consequent expectation of repaying the loan at 
 the rate of one thousand dollars a year. He apologized 
 for making the appeal and professed to be so much 
 ashamed of it that he had not been able to find the 
 courage to make the demand in his father s presence. 
 He added a statement of his deep appreciation of his 
 father s constant kindness to him, the recognition of 
 which made him confident of the success of this appeal. 
 
 The answer came promptly and was a complete 
 surprise. It contained a check for five hundred dollars 
 and an announcement of his father s intended marriage 
 to a young woman of the neighborhood. The five 
 hundred dollars, added to the amount previously 
 loaned, was figured to cover Henry s complete legal 
 claim to a share in his father s estate. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was furious. "To think of that poor 
 old fool, at his time of life, being ensnared by the wiles 
 of some rustic Dulcinea," she exclaimed. "If I allowed 
 myself the use of strong language," she continued, "I 
 should call it disgusting. There is no more pitiful sight 
 than that of a grey-bearded man, of an age supposed 
 to be venerable, attempting to relight the fires of youth
 
 136 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 by dalliance with a young woman and particularly, as 
 in this case, where her only motive is mercenary." 
 
 Hardwick was so much disappointed that he was 
 inclined to share his wife s resentment, but her expres 
 sion of it aroused only antagonism to her and he there 
 fore took his father s part. 
 
 "How can you say that, Florrie?" he asked. "You 
 don t even know her." This was injudicious, for it 
 opened the vials of her wrath upon him. 
 
 "I may not have the honor of the acquaintance of 
 this particular person," she said, with her customary 
 cackle, "but I know her type. And I know your father, 
 and, I say it with regret, the regret based upon actual 
 personal experience, I know his son. The same quality 
 of vacillation, the same weakness of will, the same lack 
 of resolution mark you both. It is just like you to defend 
 him in this unwarrantable proceeding. I suppose you 
 will be the first to rush to your stepmother and to 
 place the seal of your approval upon this unnatural 
 union. I wash my hands of it," she said in closing, with 
 a magnificent gesture. 
 
 Hardwick did not pursue the subject further. He 
 wrote his father a letter of congratulation and thanks, 
 in both of which he was thoroughly sincere. His first 
 disappointment passed, he was quite willing to admit 
 his father s perfect freedom to do as he saw fit with his 
 own life. 
 
 By this time Hardwick was thoroughly accustomed
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 137 
 
 to his position. His first enthusiasm had cooled and 
 he was attending to his duties somewhat perfunctorily. 
 He did not actually fail to do any work which came to 
 him, but, on the other hand, he did not seek it. More 
 and more he depended on Ruth Bernstein, who, always 
 willing, always ready, took from his hands task after 
 task which properly should have been discharged by 
 him. She intrigued him as much as ever, their acquaint 
 ance not having made a single step in the three months 
 they had been together. Ruth was a complete enigma 
 to him, and he was an equally complete enigma to her. 
 But, while he made a question of her personality from 
 the human, the social side, she wondered how it could 
 be possible that a man with so much at stake should 
 be so lax with regard to his business. 
 
 She had been quick to observe his growing indiffer 
 ence. At first, it had appeared to her as only a passing 
 lack of interest, one of those variations to which almost 
 everybody is liable. Her first feeling, when evidence of 
 his incapacity for sustained effort was apparent to her, 
 was that it was simply an off day, but, as indications 
 of his aberration continued, she was compelled to the 
 decision that what she saw was not unusual but was 
 one of his inherent, incorrigible traits. Even then, 
 perhaps because she had championed his cause before 
 Pemberton, she was anxious to shield him, to save him 
 from the penalty that she was sure that the business 
 manager would impose. This was instinctive purely;
 
 138 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 she did not reason it, nor did she in any way look upon 
 her attitude introspectively. 
 
 For some utterly inscrutable reason, Mrs. Hardwick 
 had been attracted by Mrs. Bernstein. She knew 
 nothing of the association of the latter s daughter with 
 her husband in the business of the Prescott Manufac 
 turing Company. Not that Hardwick had failed repeat 
 edly to mention Miss Bernstein in his talks at home 
 about what happened at the office, it was simply that 
 Mrs. Hardwick never listened to her husband s remarks 
 on any subject which did not immediately concern her 
 own interests. At all events, even if the name of Bern 
 stein lingered in a corner of her memory, she did not 
 connect it with the woman to whom she had been 
 attracted at the Red Cross Auxiliary. 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein, it may be observed, had been much 
 awed by Mrs. Hardwick s close intimacy, as she saw 
 it, with the commanding personality of Mrs. L. Percival 
 Sedley. The immediate result of this awe had been a 
 deferential attention to Mrs. Hardwick s volubility and 
 a desire to show a sympathetic interest in that lady s 
 remarks, which she really felt because, in her opinion, 
 the gates of the mighty were being opened to her. 
 Mrs. Hardwick surely did not bore her. 
 
 This may have been the reason for their mutual 
 attraction, and it may very well not have been. Perhaps 
 it was even the result rather than the cause. But, 
 whatever it was, the attraction was undoubted, and,
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 139 
 
 as they met again and again at the sessions of the 
 auxiliary, their acquaintance ripened into a sort of 
 friendship. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was vocal on all matters which held 
 her interest. She was always happy, but, from the fact 
 that she was almost always talking, it might be inferred 
 that her happiness depended upon her constant speech. 
 It might also be argued that she talked continually 
 because she was always happy. But that would be 
 quibbling, and quibbling about a matter of the utmost 
 unimportance. At all events, it was natural, in the 
 discourses to which her husband was compelled to 
 listen, that the name of Mrs. Bernstein should figure 
 frequently. 
 
 At first, Hardwick paid scant attention. His wife s 
 insistent verbosity had schooled him to appear to listen 
 rather than actually to consider the import of her 
 speech. But iteration, even when our interest is not 
 actively engaged, is bound to attract attention. The 
 constant recurrence of the name of Bernstein at last 
 moved him to mention the coincidence one evening 
 when they were sitting in the dining room while their 
 daughters were washing the dishes. It was the maid s 
 night out. 
 
 "I wonder if she s related to Ruth Bernstein, my 
 assistant?" he asked. 
 
 "She may very well be," answered Mrs. Hardwick, 
 "the name is rather uncommon."
 
 140 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I don t think it s uncommon among Jews," he said. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick, as usual, was not listening to him. 
 
 "Coming to think of it," she said, "Mrs. Bernstein 
 did mention that she had a daughter who was employed 
 in some business or other. It might very well be that 
 your assistant is her daughter. What sort of a girl is 
 she?" 
 
 "She s a mighty good looking girl for one thing. 
 She s neither dark nor fair " 
 
 "Oh! I don t mean her looks. Of what possible 
 importance do you think that can be? What I wished 
 to know was her mental quality and attainments, her 
 intellectuality." 
 
 "She s damned clever at her work," answered 
 Hardwick. 
 
 "Henry," expostulated his wife with an indulgent 
 severity, "can you never learn to eschew vulgar expres 
 sions? To me they represent nothing but a complete 
 bankruptcy of accurate, forceful diction. You say 
 damned clever. Do you suppose that carries half the 
 emphasis that would be contributed by the expression 
 undeniably efficient in the discharge of her duties ?" 
 
 Henry did not answer. He knew it would be of no 
 use. Mrs. Hardwick continued: 
 
 "I make no doubt that she is a young woman of 
 both quality and attainments, if I may judge from the 
 impression that her mother has made upon me. Bon 
 chien chasse de race is a proverb which is founded upon
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 141 
 
 a most accurate observation of humanity." Mrs. 
 Hardwick felt that she had made a fine period and 
 beamed upon her husband, looking for the admiration 
 which she felt that she had earned. 
 
 Hardwick, who was thinking of something else, 
 smiled his approval. He did not care to confess his 
 ignorance of the meaning of the French proverb 
 although Mrs. Hardwick knew very well that he did 
 not understand the language. After a suitable pause, she 
 continued: 
 
 "Mrs. Bernstein is one of the sweetest little women 
 I have ever met. She has beautiful manners; she never 
 pushes herself forward, depending rather upon the 
 knowledge that the perfect correction of her manner 
 will win the approval of the judicious. If there is one 
 thing which I despise more than another, it is forward 
 ness, the vulgar pushing of one s self to the fore regard 
 less of merit. It is the absence of this disagreeable trait 
 which I so much admire in Mrs. Bernstein. I have made 
 her my friend and I hope to become quite intimate with 
 her, even outside of the Red Cross." 
 
 "But she s a Jew, isn t she?" asked Hardwick, and 
 without waiting for an answer, went on: "We don t 
 want to associate with Jews." 
 
 "And why not, pray?" asked Mrs. Hardwick rather 
 indignantly. "What is the basis of your dislike of Jews? 
 I call it a mere vulgar prejudice of the very sort which 
 Wells defines so accurately in The Research Magnif 
 icent. "
 
 142 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Call it a prejudice, if you like," answered Hardwick, 
 "but I ve got it." 
 
 "Henry, I marvel at you. A man who has the least 
 pretension to mentality should be above prejudice of 
 any kind. However," she went on, "in this case I shall 
 not let your ideas affect me. I shall not be deterred 
 from forming a valuable friendship by your mediaeval 
 views." Mrs. Hardwick, it may be observed, never let 
 her husband s views upon any subject affect any action 
 which she contemplated. Her pronouncement in this 
 case was just so much more vocal pleasure. 
 
 Hardwick got up from the table and went into the 
 cluttered-up living room. He picked up the evening 
 paper and had just become interested in an article, 
 when his wife came into the room, her knitting materials 
 in her hands, and seated herself near him. She was not 
 silent long. 
 
 "Henry, my dear," she said, her tone again unctuous 
 as usual, "you did not answer my question as to Miss 
 Bernstein s intellectual quality." 
 
 Hardwick was deep in the article he was reading and 
 heard her question without taking in its import. 
 
 "What s that?" he asked. 
 
 "I remarked that you had failed to answer the ques 
 tion I put to you concerning Miss Bernstein s intel 
 lectuality. If she s at all like her mother, I have no 
 doubt of it. What did you say her name was?" 
 
 "Ruth. How do you know the woman you ve met is 
 the mother of the girl in the office?"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 143 
 
 "The coincidence is far too striking to permit any 
 other hypothesis. As I remarked before, the name of 
 Bernstein is uncommon, the Mrs. Bernstein I met has 
 a daughter engaged in some commercial pursuit; you 
 have a young woman in your office of that name. That 
 makes it a perfectly clear case. Well, I was saying to 
 your assistant s mother that I found it difficult, at the 
 Red Cross, to undertake a real conversation and that I 
 hoped she would come to see me some afternoon when 
 she was disengaged. In fact, I went further; I offered to 
 call on her if the opportunity presented itself. She was 
 very sweet about it and expressed the greatest pleasure 
 at the prospect of becoming better acquainted." 
 
 "I don t see why you want to be fussing about with 
 people like that," remarked Hardwick, and resumed the 
 reading of the paper. Her husband s words and his lack 
 of interest in her talk as evidenced by his absorption 
 in the newspaper spurred Mrs. Hardwick to throw 
 down the gage of battle. 
 
 "You don t see why I fuss, I believe fuss is the word 
 you used, with people like that; I believe I quote you 
 accurately; well, you may be able to see the reason for 
 it, because I shall have Mrs. Bernstein and her daughter 
 here for dinner on Wednesday next." Mrs. Hardwick 
 delivered herself of this remark in a most bellicose 
 tone; she appeared to wish that he would oppose her. 
 
 "Have her here if you wish," answered Hardwick, 
 "and all of her relatives too, but I won t come home 
 to dinner that evening. I ll stay in town."
 
 144 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Oh! No, you won t," answered Mrs. Hardwick with 
 conviction. "You ll come home just as usual and you ll 
 behave exactly as you would with any other guests we 
 might entertain. I have no fear of your undertaking to 
 hold me up to ridicule hi that way. When I invited 
 Mrs. Bernstein to dine here," Mrs. Hardwick either 
 forgot or wilfully ignored the fact that she had had no 
 intention of asking the Bernsteins to dinner until 
 Henry had shown his antagonism to them. "When I 
 invited Mrs. Bernstein to dine here," she repeated, 
 "I had expressly in mind the thought that you would 
 be delighted to make the acquaintance of so superior a 
 woman. You will be at home without doubt; your 
 opposition is the merest childishness." 
 
 And Hardwick, although he did not answer, knew 
 that she was right.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 MRS. BERNSTEIN demurred at accepting 
 Mrs. Hardwick s invitation to dinner, par 
 ticularly because Ruth was included. It 
 would have been very easy to decline on the score of 
 unwillingness to leave the latter alone, but it was 
 even more difficult to accept for her. Mrs. Bernstein 
 was well aware that to accept for Ruth would call for 
 some protest on the part of that young woman and, 
 therefore, she hesitated. But Mrs. Bernstein s hesitation 
 was not considered by Mrs. Hardwick. To her it was 
 only a delay, longer or shorter according to her mood. 
 In this case she allowed it to be rather longer than 
 usual because she really was very fond of Mrs. Bern 
 stein and her one great manner of showing her affection 
 was to allow her friend the opportunity to say a few 
 words. She did this unconsciously, of course, for, 
 strange as it may seem, Mrs. Hardwick had no idea 
 that she talked much and would have resented the 
 imputation most vigorously. 
 
 After Mrs. Bernstein had made her few objections, 
 Mrs. Hardwick took it for granted that the invitation 
 was accepted and said so with the utmost definiteness. 
 She had not even deigned to answer the objections. 
 Mrs. Bernstein really wished to go, her only fear in 
 
 145
 
 146 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 the whole matter was the impending discussion with 
 her daughter. 
 
 However, that discussion came to its inevitable end, 
 and on Wednesday evening the two Bernstein ladies 
 presented themselves at the Hardwick house. The 
 door was opened by Marian, who introduced herself 
 promptly and in a manner that charmed both of the 
 visitors. That was their first impression and it was most 
 favorable. The second was made by the furnishing of 
 Mrs. Hardwick s hall. This left them almost breathless. 
 Ruth, in particular, could not permit her glance to 
 rest upon any one feature of the dreadful conglomera 
 tion; other features constantly encroached upon her 
 field of vision and attracted her attention. During the 
 two minutes which elapsed before the appearance of 
 their hostess, Ruth s eyes traveled round and round 
 the room with the result that she was almost bewildered. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick greeted her guests effusively. She 
 was quite ready, metaphorically, to take her friend s 
 daughter to her arms without any test. She apologized 
 for "dear Henry s" delay in appearing, setting it down 
 to his late return from the office. At length, he came 
 down stairs, attired in a dinner jacket, and greeted Ruth 
 as an old friend, while he acknowledged the introduction 
 to her mother courteously. The latter made a distinctly 
 favorable impression. Indeed, she looked very well this 
 evening, having gone to some trouble in the matter of 
 her dress.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 147 
 
 Until they were summoned to the table, the talk, 
 mostly from the mouth of the hostess, had for its object 
 the establishment of sufficient reciprocal knowledge 
 to permit of general conversation. Mrs. Hardwick 
 explained to her husband who the Bernsteins were, 
 repeating various items which she had learned from the 
 elder, and to the guests she told what she felt necessary 
 of her own family. She dwelt upon her regret at Alice s 
 absence at college. She was sure that it would be a 
 keen disappointment to her not to have been at home 
 on this most auspicious occasion. 
 
 At table Mrs. Hardwick had Mrs. Bernstein on her 
 right and Marian on her left. Hardwick sat between 
 Mrs. Bernstein and Ruth. The meal began with rather 
 disjointed conversation. Mrs. Hardwick was busy 
 giving orders in stage whispers to her little incompetent 
 maid, who, although she had been most carefully 
 instructed as to her duties, completely forgot every 
 thing she had been told when it was most important 
 that she should remember. 
 
 The meal was most generous in quantity and nig 
 gardly in quality. In fact, the food was poorly cooked 
 and execrably served. But politeness is stronger than 
 appetite and makes us eat in company what we would 
 reject when alone. The inferior quality of the food, 
 however, served the purpose of restoring Mrs. Bern 
 stein s aplomb by removing much of the awe which 
 she felt in Mrs. Hardwick s presence. She knew that in
 
 148 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 this particular, at least, she was the superior of her 
 hostess. Mrs. Hardwick, on the other hand, was per 
 fectly delighted with her dinner and was sure that her 
 guests must be impressed by this additional proof of 
 her complete versatility. 
 
 When the meal was well under way, the hostess began 
 what was intended as general conversation, but which 
 was directed principally at Mrs. Bernstein. She seized 
 upon some totally irrelevant remark to call attention 
 to her literary work. 
 
 "It is just as I wrote in my essay on Rousseau in 
 the University Magazine. You have seen it, I believe," 
 she said, with a smirk, looking directly at her guest on 
 the right. "It is a pity that a publication of such pre 
 eminent quality should have so limited a circulation. 
 I suppose, however, that it is scarcely to be expected 
 to interest the hoi polloi, it is rather caviare to the 
 general. The number of those who are interested in the 
 purely intellectual is bound to be restricted. I am 
 convinced that an effort should be made to bring erudite 
 thought to a larger audience and it appears to me that 
 the surest avenue is the daily newspaper. To that end 
 I am writing a series of articles," and so on. 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein was spellbound by the fluency of her 
 hostess. She was not much interested in the higher 
 education of the people, beginning with herself, but she 
 was seized with the desire for expression and, at the first 
 pause for breath on the part of Mrs. Hardwick, she 
 opened upon her favorite topic.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 149 
 
 "It s remarkable, Mrs. Hard wick," she said, "how a 
 woman with a family should find time to do so much. 
 I wouldn t have the strength. Indeed, for more than a 
 year I have been feeling miserable all of the time. I 
 awake in the morning with a feeling of intense depres 
 sion. I feel just as though it is going to be impossible 
 for me to get out of bed. Ruth can tell you how many 
 mornings in the week it is absolutely necessary for her 
 to give me my breakfast in bed. It s hard on her, I 
 know, but " 
 
 But Mrs. Hardwick could wait no longer. 
 
 " It is a puzzle to me how I do manage to get so much 
 done," she said with unconcealed pride, "but I do get 
 it done. I suppose it is simply by the exercise of an 
 indomitable will power. I have always been like that. 
 My ambition is simply relentless, it gives me no rest. 
 Early in my married life, I determined that I should 
 devote a part of each day to intellectual pursuits, and I 
 have held to that resolution implacably. And I have 
 done it without allowing my household to suffer, the 
 health of the children is ample evidence of that. I have 
 always chosen to care for them myself; it is a charge by 
 much too sacred to be put in the hands of servants. In 
 that respect, I have always sacrificed myself to whatever 
 extent was necessary and I do not regret it." She paused 
 for the admiration to which she felt herself entitled, but 
 Mrs. Bernstein saw another opportunity and held forth. 
 
 "I always enjoyed good health until last year. Ruth
 
 150 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 can tell you how vigorous and active I always have been. 
 But in the last year my whole life has changed. You 
 cannot imagine the misery I have suffered. Only the 
 other day, I remarked to my sister-in-law, Mr. Bern 
 stein s sister, Mrs. Elias, you may have heard of her or, 
 at least, of her husband, he s a member of the firm of 
 Price, Elias and Company, manufacturers of underwear. 
 I was saying to her " 
 
 "Price, Elias and Company," interrupted Mrs. Hard- 
 wick. "Of course I have heard of them. They have an 
 office on Market street. And isn t Mrs. Price a constant 
 attendant at the University Extension Lectures? I have 
 met her there. I spoke to her about my workone day and 
 sent her a copy of the magazine containing my article. 
 She was good enough to give it the warmest praise. 
 I m sure she would be much interested in a little mono 
 graph I am writing at present on Fielding. I hope to 
 arouse an interest hi the father of the modern English 
 novel which will open his pages to a new host of enthu 
 siastic readers." 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein s knowledge of Fielding was confined 
 strictly to what she had just heard from Mrs. Hard- 
 wick s lips. Slight as this knowledge was, it contented 
 her. Besides, she was interested in another subject. 
 
 "I was saying to my sister-in-law only the other day 
 that it seemed as though it was impossible to find a doc 
 tor who would really understand my case. My regular 
 doctor makes no effort to find out what is the matter
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 151 
 
 with me. He simply pooh-poohs everything I say to him. 
 He gives me medicine that doesn t do me a bit of good. 
 I know that because I forgot to take it twice in succes 
 sion and I didn t feel one bit worse. I have been thinking 
 of making a change and a friend of ours recommended 
 that I consult Dr. Franklin. Do you know anything 
 about him?" 
 
 " Oh ! Yes. He is said to be very good. He is the brother 
 of the writer, James L. Franklin, who writes the most 
 charming essays on literary and other subjects. Do you 
 find time for reading?" she asked, turning to Ruth. 
 
 "Not as much as I would like to," she answered. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick thereupon opened the floodgates upon 
 Ruth and talked to her almost continuously during the 
 rest of the meal. Mrs. Bernstein consequently seized 
 upon Hardwick and treated him to a lengthy discourse 
 upon her ills which would have bored him exceedingly 
 if he had been compelled to pay close attention to her 
 words. This, however, was entirely unnecessary, as Mrs. 
 Bernstein did not listen to the occasional monosyllables 
 which he felt that duty compelled. Indeed, by mistake, 
 he once said "no" when the obvious reply was "yes," 
 but she did not notice it. 
 
 After dinner, they sat in the hall and Mrs. Hardwick 
 furnished not only most of the talk but the subject as 
 well. Her digestion was most remarkable not merely 
 because of the kind of food which it assimilated but also 
 because it functioned in spite of her constant verbal
 
 152 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 activity. Hardwick was used to her volubility and did 
 not mind it as far as his own comfort was concerned. 
 He knew that there was no use in waiting for her to run 
 down because she scarcely ever did that. He wanted to 
 talk to Ruth. This was his first opportunity in the three 
 months he had known her and he determined to make 
 use of it. While the stream of his wife s speech flowed on 
 undammed he pondered upon an opening for a talk with 
 Ruth. 
 
 She was sitting on the davenport with Marian, while 
 all of the others were seated on chairs. Presently Hard- 
 wick stood up and then walked over to the davenport 
 and sat down beside her. In a low tone, so as not to 
 break into his wife s discourse, he asked her playfully: 
 
 "What do you think of our little good-for-nothing?" 
 indicating Marian. 
 
 "I wouldn t care to tell you in her presence," she 
 answered smiling. 
 
 "Shall I go away?" said Marian, entering into the 
 spirit of play. 
 
 "Oh! No," answered her father. "Stay, you know 
 listeners never hear any good of themselves." 
 
 "We ll make this an exception," said Ruth. "I think 
 she s a very lovely little girl, or perhaps I had better 
 say young lady. " 
 
 "Oh! I m no young lady," cried Marian, "Allie s the 
 young lady of the family." 
 
 "There ll be plenty of time for that later," said Hard-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 153 
 
 wick to both of them, and then, addressing Ruth, "Are 
 you fond of children?" 
 
 "Very," she answered, "but I get little opportunity 
 to meet them. Our only relatives in the city are my aunt 
 and uncle, and their children are really grown up." 
 
 "Do you go out much?" inquired Hardwick. His 
 interest was quite keen, he had always wanted to know 
 more about her. 
 
 " Very little," she replied. " Usually when I come home 
 from the office, I m too tired to want to do anything. 
 Besides, we don t keep a maid and I have most of the 
 housework to do in the evening." She spoke straight 
 forwardly; there was no plea for sympathy in her tone, 
 she did not seem to consider her lot at all extraordinary. 
 
 "But there must be some young men, or perhaps one 
 young man." 
 
 "Strange to say, there isn t even one," she replied, 
 smilingly. 
 
 "You ll never get me to believe that," he said, ban- 
 teringly, "it s impossible that there are not some aspir 
 ants for your favor." 
 
 "If there are, they haven t informed me of their 
 aspirations." 
 
 "What do you do for enjoyment? You must do some 
 thing." 
 
 " Well, sometimes we go to the theatre or to a concert." 
 
 "You must be musical. Most " he was going to say 
 "Jews," but he thought that a term of reproach, so he
 
 154 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 avoided the word, and, after a barely perceptible pause, 
 added "young ladies are. Do you play?" 
 
 "No," she answered. "I took a few lessons while my 
 father was living, but, after his death, we couldn t 
 afford it, so I had to give it up." 
 
 "I can t get it into my head that there shouldn t be 
 any young men. It doesn t seem natural. Don t you 
 know any?" 
 
 "Of course I know some, but, really, they don t 
 interest me." 
 
 "What s the matter with them?" 
 
 "I really couldn t tell you. They just don t interest 
 me and I guess I don t interest them either." 
 
 "I don t believe that. It isn t natural. I believe there 
 is someone and you don t want to admit it." 
 
 Ruth was silent. Her expression, which had been 
 most pleasant, now took on a more serious air. Hardwick 
 noticed it and, suddenly, there came to him a recol 
 lection of Miss Henderson s remark concerning Pem- 
 berton s interest hi Ruth. He wondered if, after all, 
 there might not be something in the girl s gossip. With 
 the idea of getting some light on this subject, he turned 
 the talk to the office. 
 
 "I suppose you re so wrapped up in your work at the 
 office that you haven t any mind for social pleasures?" 
 he said questioningly. 
 
 "Oh! I don t know. It s awfully interesting though." 
 
 "Did you ever have any other position?"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 155 
 
 "No, this is my first and only." 
 
 "Were you there before Mr. Pemberton came?" 
 
 "Yes, nearly two years." 
 
 "Did he make many changes?" 
 
 "I should say so," she answered enthusiastically. 
 
 "He s all business, isn t he?" 
 
 "At the office, surely." 
 
 "Why, have you ever met him socially?" 
 
 Ruth was vexed. She did not want to admit that there 
 was any intimacy between her and Pemberton nor was 
 she willing to lie about it. She knew she could change 
 the subject and that Hardwick s politeness would keep 
 him from pressing a question which, evidently, she did 
 not wish to answer, but that would be a tacit admission. 
 She determined to cut off further inquiries of this nature 
 and said in a tone which she intentionally made matter- 
 of-fact: 
 
 "Of course I ve met him socially on several occasions, 
 but he has no interest in social matters. He lives for his 
 work and its quality shows how much it is to him. He s 
 a self-made man. He came here from the West practi 
 cally unknown, and today there s nobody in the line 
 who hasn t heard of him. Don t you think he s a splendid 
 man to work for?" 
 
 Hardwick agreed and they went on to talk of business 
 only. Ruth took good care not to offer him another 
 opening. Their further talk was of short duration, 
 however, for Mrs. Hardwick wanted a listener who was
 
 156 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 content with a silent role, and Mrs. Bernstein insisted 
 on talking whenever she had an opportunity or, rather, 
 whenever she could make one. Ruth was quite content 
 to listen to her hostess without taking an active part in 
 the conversation; perhaps it would be better to say, 
 without unduly interrupting that lady s soliloquy. And 
 Hardwick, thus thrown again into the current of Mrs. 
 Bernstein s stream of narrated ills, kept himself afloat 
 as best he could. 
 
 At nine-thirty the guests departed after an exchange 
 of courtesies usual under the circumstances. As they 
 walked down the street, Mrs. Bernstein asked: 
 
 "What did you think of Mrs. Hardwick? Isn t she 
 awfully clever?" 
 
 "I don t know whether she s clever or not, but I must 
 say that she s a woman who would be very interesting 
 to anyone who was interested in her pet subject." 
 
 "Her pet subject! Why, what s that?" asked Mrs. 
 Bernstein, mystified. 
 
 "Herself. She never talks about anything else and 
 she talks about that incessantly. I ve never met a 
 worse bore." 
 
 "Ruth! How can you say so?" 
 
 "I pity her poor husband. Think of having that 
 every day in the week, every week in the year. And that 
 poor, lovely child. Did you ever see anyone less becom 
 ingly dressed? And what did you think of the dinner? 
 Ugh!"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 157 
 
 "The dinner wasn t very good," admitted Mrs. Bern 
 stein, "but you see she s a very intellectual woman 
 and probably doesn t bother about ordinary domestic 
 affairs. I really think she s very brilliant." 
 
 Meanwhile their hosts were discussing them. Mrs. 
 Hardwick was delighted. She was filled with the con 
 sciousness of having entertained, not magnificently, but 
 well as regards the material aspect and munificently 
 otherwise "a real feast of reason and flow of soul" 
 as she expressed it to her husband. 
 
 "It s really a kindness to entertain people like that," 
 she said as she undressed. "They never go anywhere 
 and never meet any people, certainly not intellectual 
 people. Mrs. Bernstein is a lovely woman and her 
 daughter is one of the most interesting girls I have ever 
 met. Her views on every subject which the brief 
 opportunity at my disposal enabled me to bring up 
 showed the soundest reasoning. I hope to be of great 
 service to her. I shall suggest instructive, interesting 
 books for her and then I shall discuss them with her, 
 thus arousing and stimulating her liking for profitable 
 literature." And much, much more in the same strain. 
 
 Hardwick did not answer. He would have enjoyed 
 expressing his opinion of Mrs. Bernstein s continuous 
 recital of her maladies and the boredom he had suffered, 
 but he knew that it would cause his wife to rush to the 
 defense of her new friend and thus compel his attention 
 when he wished to use it to consider a matter which 
 had occurred to him.
 
 158 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Hardwick was now confident that Pemberton and 
 Ruth were at least intimate friends. He could not have 
 given a satisfactory reason for his belief, but it was not 
 the less certain on that account. While he was thinking 
 of this relationship between the two people with whom 
 his business brought him most closely into contact, 
 he was suddenly seized by the consciousness that he 
 had not been holding to his original determination to 
 make a great success of this position. And no one 
 could be more fully aware of his dereliction than Ruth. 
 He was conscience-stricken, at least that was how he 
 would have described it. Actually, he was seized by 
 the fear of being found out and in the semi-panic which 
 was usual with him when some disagreeable idea con 
 trolled him, he resolved that he would forthwith mend 
 his ways and exhibit the same interest and activity in 
 his work which had marked it at the beginning.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 UNDER the spell of his re-born resolution, 
 Hardwick arrived at the office very early the 
 next morning and was seated at his desk, 
 going over his mail, when Ruth came in. Her pleasant 
 greeting indicated none of the surprise which his 
 unusual punctuality occasioned her, and the greeting 
 accomplished, she took off her hat and jacket and began 
 her work. Presently, he called her and asked: 
 
 "When do you usually begin work on the annual 
 catalogue?" 
 
 "Let me see," she said, trying to recall the matter 
 to her mind, "Oh! yes. Last year we put the copy in 
 the printer s hands in the first week of October. I think 
 you ll find a memorandum of it in the slip I gave you 
 on the first of September." This was the second week 
 in October. 
 
 "When do we mail it?" he asked. 
 
 "The first week of the new year, usually. But it 
 doesn t have to be out quite so early as that, the second 
 or third week would do as well." 
 
 "I d like to go over the matter with you this 
 morning." 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Hardwick. Now?" 
 
 "No, when I am through with my mail." He turned 
 back to his work and Ruth went to her desk. Hardwick 
 
 159
 
 160 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 was all business this morning. He was delighted to find 
 that his mind worked with precision, rapidly. He took 
 a distinct pleasure in the consciousness of his energy, 
 and wondered vaguely how he could ever have been 
 content to be so slothful as he had been for the past 
 month or more. When he had collected the necessary 
 data, he called for Miss Henderson to take dictation. 
 
 She came over to him, gave him a friendly nod and a 
 "good morning" and sat down, ready for the persiflage 
 which usually preceded the work they did together. 
 The sight of her recalled the first intimation that had 
 been given him of Pemberton s interest in Ruth. Now 
 that, in his mind, the suspicion had been confirmed, 
 he was strongly tempted to mention the subject in some 
 way so that he might learn if Miss Henderson had any 
 thing to add to her previous information. But, in his 
 new zeal for work, he put this temptation aside, and, 
 almost brusquely, began his dictation. Miss Henderson 
 wondered, but made no comment until he was com 
 pelled to pause in order to verify some data. Then she 
 said: 
 
 " You re sure on the rush this A. M. What s the hurry? 
 Going to catch a train?" 
 
 Ordinarily, neither the words nor the manner of easy 
 familiarity would have annoyed him. But this morning 
 they did, for they were definite evidence of the lightness 
 with which he had considered the responsibilities of his 
 position. He wished he had not made himself liable to
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 161 
 
 this sort of thing and that he might reprove her for her 
 impertinence. But he could not. He saw only too clearly 
 that it was he who was to blame for it, and not the girl, 
 and to take her to task would but give her an opportunity 
 to make him very uncomfortable. With these thoughts 
 in his mind, he did not answer her, but went through the 
 pages of his memorandum book, looking for the refer 
 ence which he needed. Miss Henderson knew very well 
 that he had heard her, and took his silence as evidence 
 of ill humor. 
 
 "You re awful grouchy this morning. Did you get 
 out of the wrong side of the bed?" 
 
 Hardwick smiled, as if in appreciation of the humor 
 of her remark, but made no reply. He had now found 
 the information which he wished, and said: 
 
 "Just make that three hundred and fifty instead of 
 three hundred." 
 
 Miss Henderson saw that he was not willing to accept 
 their ordinary relationship, and, wondering, set to work. 
 
 When all of the letters had been dictated, he called 
 Ruth, and together they discussed the catalogue with a 
 copy of it before them. It was a very ordinary affair, 
 well printed, with good illustrations of the common 
 place kind. As they went over it, principally for the 
 purpose of arranging a programme for the compilation 
 of the copy by the sales manager and his subordinates, 
 an idea suddenly occurred to Hardwick. 
 
 "Say," he said, "do we have to get out this kind of a 
 book?"
 
 162 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "What do you mean?" she asked, surprised. "Do you 
 mean do we have to get out a catalogue?" 
 
 "Oh! I know we have to get out a catalogue of some 
 sort. But are we compelled to put out a dull, unimagi 
 native thing like this; just what everybody else does?" 
 
 "I don t think I understand." 
 
 "It s just this. The ordinary catalogue like this," 
 he said, holding it up level with his shoulder, "is just a 
 reference book which dealers consult when they need 
 information. And usually, when they have done that, 
 unless it s a most ordinary inquiry, they have to write 
 to us to learn what they want to know. What I d like to 
 do is to put out a catalogue that would be actually 
 interesting to anyone in the line, the sort of book that a 
 dealer would have pleasure in reading. I d like to bring 
 out the essential facts and figures in some concise, well- 
 ordered way that any child could understand. And then, 
 I d have real pictures of the goods, not these mechan 
 ically retouched affairs that look like nothing under 
 Heaven, and I d have information about them that the 
 dealer would be glad to have, that would make him look 
 at our book first. In other words, I d like to make it a 
 real silent salesman ." He was enthusiastic, he pictured 
 mentally the book he would like to make, vaguely as to 
 details, of course, and losing sight of the immense diffi 
 culty of the undertaking. 
 
 Ruth was infected by his enthusiasm. 
 
 "Oh! That would be splendid," she said and asked:
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 163 
 
 "Do you think we could do it?" 
 
 "Sure," he answered with conviction. "Just leave me 
 for about fifteen minutes and I ll sketch out a sample 
 page." 
 
 But it was fully an hour before he was ready for her. 
 He had found the task much more difficult than he had 
 thought, but the fine edge of his enthusiasm was not 
 worn off thereby. 
 
 "Do you see?" he asked with pride, as she looked over 
 the page. "There s the cut. Of course, I haven t at 
 tempted to show what I have in mind. I have a book in my 
 desk here which has the sort of illustration I want. 
 Wait a minute," and he went through one of the drawers 
 of his desk and produced the thing he wished. He showed 
 it to her. "That s the idea," he said. 
 
 "Cuts like that would be very expensive, wouldn t 
 they?" she asked. 
 
 "Sure," he answered, "but they d be cheap in the 
 long run. They have imagination in them, they make 
 the goods look like things that people really use. When 
 a carpenter saw one of our braces in a picture like that, 
 he d never be content until he owned one. That s the 
 purpose of a catalogue illustration, not merely to show 
 an accurate diagram of details, although that s impor 
 tant too, but to make the person whom you re trying to 
 interest want the thing he sees pictured." 
 
 Ruth was immensely impressed, both by the origi 
 nality and excellence of the idea and by the recrudescence 
 of the zeal which he had shown at the beginning.
 
 164 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I think it s wonderful," she said, "but do you think 
 we ll have time enough?" 
 
 " It ll mean a lot of work, of course, but I ll answer for 
 that if Pemberton ll stand for the expense." 
 
 "I don t think you ll have any trouble in getting him 
 to 0. K. the increased cost if you can show him that 
 you really can get the book out in time." 
 
 " I can do that all right. I wonder if I could see him 
 now." And in his enthusiasm he grasped the telephone 
 receiver and asked the operator to make the necessary 
 inquiry. The answer came promptly to the effect that 
 Mr. Pemberton would see him in fifteen minutes. 
 
 Hardwick used this time to make a rough estimate of 
 the cost of producing the work and was surprised to find 
 that the book he contemplated would cost about fifteen 
 thousand dollars as against a cost of slightly less than 
 eleven thousand for the previous issue. 
 
 Pemberton listened to his enthusiastic outline of the 
 proposition with the utmost passivity. He allowed 
 Hardwick to talk until he had completely finished. Then, 
 after a silence of some seconds, he said: 
 
 "You have an excellent idea there, Hardwick. How 
 much would it cost?" 
 
 "Not over fifteen thousand dollars. That s an outside 
 figure. I may very well be able to get it down to about 
 fourteen thousand. Don t you think it s worth the 
 difference?" 
 
 "One thing at a time. I don t believe you could get
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 165 
 
 the book out for fifteen thousand. You d better figure 
 seventeen. Have you figured the extra postage?" 
 
 "I hadn t thought of that. That d add five hundred 
 dollars." 
 
 "More like a thousand," said Pemberton. "You ll 
 want to use coated paper, and that means more weight." 
 
 "Ten pounds to the ream would do it." 
 
 "I don t think so. There s no use going to all this 
 expense and then skimping the book for another ten 
 pounds to the ream." 
 
 "You re right there," said Hard wick, delighted at 
 Pemberton s display of interest. "But that would add 
 both to the cost of the paper and the mailing too. And 
 we d have to use a heavier cover." 
 
 "We ll have to figure the cost at seventeen thousand 
 at the least. I don t mind that. But there s one very 
 important aspect of the matter which you seem to have 
 overlooked." 
 
 "What s that?" asked Hardwick. 
 
 "You ll have to have an entirely new set of illustra 
 tions made. That s one thing and it s a big job. And the 
 whole catalogue will have to be re-written from begin 
 ning to end. That will fall on you. I don t believe you 
 can do it." 
 
 "Yes I can," answered Hardwick, with complete 
 conviction. 
 
 "Have you figured out your time?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Hardwick. Actually he had not done
 
 166 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 so except in the vaguest possible way. "This is Wed 
 nesday, the tenth of October. Say we begin on Monday 
 next, that ll be the fifteenth. I can have practically 
 everything in the printer s hands in six weeks, say the 
 first of December. By making the arrangement in 
 advance, we can get the printer to finish the work in 
 four weeks; that would mean we d have the books all in 
 the mail before the tenth of January." 
 
 "That s all right as far as the printer goes, but you ll 
 have to make it very plain to him that we re not going 
 to accept excuses instead of catalogues. I m afraid that 
 the time is too short." 
 
 "I ll answer for that," replied Hardwick, confidently. 
 "Johnny Albright could do it easy." 
 
 " I ll admit that it s possible, but I doubt very much 
 whether you can do the preparatory work in six weeks." 
 
 "I can do it all right." 
 
 " That s the question. Can you do it right in that time? 
 There s no use undertaking it at all unless it can be done 
 right in every particular. You must be very sure of your 
 self before you undertake it." 
 
 "I ve thought it all out," said Hardwick. But he bad 
 not done so. It was his incorrigible optimism which 
 blinded him to the delays always incident to work of 
 this kind. 
 
 "Well, if you are sure," said Pemberton, slowly, "I ll 
 authorize you to go ahead. Think it over again and 
 remember distinctly that by the fifteenth of January
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 167 
 
 every one of these catalogues must be in the mail. And 
 the work must be done right. This book is worth while 
 and I would be much pleased to have it, but we cannot 
 afford to add six thousand dollars to our expense and 
 then have a half-way job. And we cannot, under any 
 consideration, get the book out later than January 
 fifteenth. I hope I make that plain." He looked at 
 Hardwick with the greatest seriousness. 
 
 "I can do it." said Hardwick. 
 
 "Well, think it over again and if on second considera 
 tion you are sure that you won t fall down, go ahead. 
 But if you have the least doubt about it, you had better 
 save it for another year." 
 
 "All right," replied Hardwick, delighted. This was 
 his chance. This would show everybody the kind of 
 material of which Henry Wallace Hardwick was made. 
 He saw the book complete; he had in his mind the 
 grudging praise which their competitors would be 
 compelled to render; he had visions of increased salary, 
 increased importance, success in the highest degree. 
 
 "It s a pity you didn t bring this to me sooner," 
 said Pemberton. "How long have you had it in mind?" 
 
 "It came to me only this morning. I was going over 
 the catalogue with Miss Bernstein, with the intention 
 of practically duplicating last year s book, when it 
 occurred to me that it wouldn t do, and then an idea 
 came to me to put into practice this scheme which I 
 tried to sell to one of my customers when I was in the
 
 168 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 printing business. But the man couldn t see the expense, 
 he hadn t the vision. I ll say the scheme s all right, 
 even if it is my own idea." He ended in a burst of pride. 
 Pemberton saw it and wondered whether this was 
 merely a flash in the pan or was the expression of a 
 personal force which had been dormant, awaiting only 
 the suitable opportunity for its realization. 
 
 "Think it over," he said again, "and come to me 
 tomorrow." The interview was at an end. 
 
 The more Hardwick thought about it, the better he 
 liked the idea and the surer he became of his ability 
 to complete the work in the necessary time. He came 
 to Pemberton the next morning and assured him of 
 his unshaken confidence and received definite author 
 ization to go ahead. 
 
 At the meeting of executives on the following Mon 
 day, the plan was received with enthusiasm, and every 
 one concerned promised the most hearty co-operation.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 BY Tuesday afternoon, Hardwick had com 
 pleted the general outline of the new catalogue. 
 He sent for one of the printers whom he was 
 in the habit of employing for such jobs and arranged 
 to have some dummies made. Two days later, the 
 specifications for the printing were ready and were 
 submitted to four printers who usually figured on the 
 work of the Prescott Company. 
 
 In the meantime, he had begun the layouts for the 
 pages and, by the end of the week, the general scheme 
 was well in hand. Hardwick had been in consultation 
 with several firms whom he considered capable of 
 handling the drawings and engravings. He was much 
 disappointed to learn that, owing to the shortage of 
 employees occasioned by enlistment in the various 
 branches of war service, there was a general disposition 
 to ask for more time than he had thought would be 
 necessary. 
 
 Finally, he was forced to the conclusion that he 
 would be compelled to divide the work among several 
 local firms and would probably have to call on some 
 New York concern to help. This occasioned a trip to 
 that city which wasted a whole day, when every hour 
 counted. All of this arrangement consumed much time, 
 none of which he had taken into account in his guess, 
 
 169
 
 170 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 for it was no more, of the six weeks necessary for the 
 preliminary work. 
 
 However, it was all arranged just before the first 
 of November, and then he threw himself into the 
 actual work, almost with fury. He found it much more 
 difficult than he had imagined. It was perfectly easy 
 to contemplate the variety, the constant interest with 
 which he wished to invest every page by the avoidance 
 of repetition, but actually to produce the effect which 
 he desired was most difficult. Every page called for 
 separate study and planning, and what he had figured 
 in minutes proved to require hours. He was called on 
 constantly to approve photographs, drawings, what not, 
 while he was endeavoring to prepare new matter. At 
 the end of the first week, when he should have had 
 one-quarter of the one hundred and twenty-eight 
 pages of the book in the engraver s hands, only seven 
 teen had reached this stage. 
 
 And then the printers began to bother him. Following 
 their usual custom, they held back the delivery of their 
 estimates until the last minute, and used up as much 
 time as possible in consulting him on all sorts of points, 
 making various suggestions, ostensibly to render him 
 service in the preparation of the work, but really to 
 obtain information which would enable each of them to 
 submit an acceptable bid. Hardwick tried to shunt them 
 off on Ruth Bernstein, but invariably they came back 
 to him and he was without the ability to deny himself.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 171 
 
 He had always been easy of approach and every one 
 of these men knew how to reach him. 
 
 In spite of the slowness of the work and the numerous, 
 inevitable delays, Hardwick was not discouraged. The 
 next day would always be prolific of great results; once 
 the first difficulties over, the work would go swimmingly. 
 The next week, with him, was always an endless period 
 in which anything and everything might be accom 
 plished. 
 
 One morning, about a week after the specifications 
 had been given out, Hardwick received a visit from one 
 William McCabe, a printer with a plant of fair size 
 and a reputation for the production of mediocre work. 
 Hardwick was displeased when McCabe s name was 
 sent in, and resolved not to see him. He sent word that 
 he was very busy and begged to be excused. 
 
 McCabe, however, was not to be easily dismissed. 
 He stated his willingness to await Hardwick s con 
 venience, if he could see him for one minute only. 
 Hardwick yielded and came out into the reception 
 room and greeted him, standing. 
 
 "How are you, Harry?" asked McCabe, offering his 
 hand. 
 
 "Glad to see you, Mac," answered Hardwick. "I m 
 awfully rushed this morning. What can I do for you?" 
 
 "When can I see you for about half an hour?" 
 
 "Lord! I don t know when. I m over my head with 
 work and I haven t a minute."
 
 172 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Can I see you at your house this evening?" 
 
 "Not very well, I m working here this evening. I m 
 working every night." 
 
 "You eat, don t you?" 
 
 "Sure, but I just grab a bite of lunch and rush back 
 to work." 
 
 "Where do you go to lunch?" 
 
 Hardwick saw there was no escape. "Come in," he 
 said, leading the way to his desk. McCabe followed 
 him. 
 
 "What can I do for you?" asked Hardwick when 
 they were both seated. 
 
 "I want to bid on your catalogue." 
 
 "How did you hear about it?" 
 
 "Oh! I heard all right. How about it?" 
 
 "Nothing doing." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "It s not in your line." 
 
 "Not in my line! Why not?" 
 
 "In the first place, it s too big a job for your outfit 
 and, in the second, it s a little beyond you in quality." 
 
 "It s not too big a job for me, by a good deal. I can 
 prove it, and as for quality, I can give you as much as 
 anybody." 
 
 "See here, Mac," said Hardwick, who was becoming 
 much annoyed, "I don t want you in on this. You don t 
 belong. On other work, I don t mind, but this is out of 
 your class."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 173 
 
 "Oh! Is it?" asked McCabe, calmly, although he was 
 quite conscious of Hardwick s feeling. "Well, I want to 
 bid just the same. I don t have to talk about it right 
 now, though. Meet me at lunch today, and let s talk 
 this thing over. Will you?" 
 
 Hardwick hesitated for a moment and then accepted. 
 There were good reasons for his humoring McCabe, 
 whom he had known in a business way for many years. 
 
 By appointment, they met at a little restaurant in 
 the neighborhood of the office. Over a simple lunch, 
 they discussed various matters, the war, their common 
 acquaintances, both of them sparring for tune. The first 
 matter of a business nature was begun by McCabe. 
 
 "Say, Harry," he said, "could you write a little 
 copy for me in your spare time?" 
 
 "For you personally?" 
 
 "Not exactly. I ve got a job from a concern who 
 wants some advertising service to go along with their 
 printing. They don t do enough to use an agency, and 
 they look to us to work up the stuff for them. There s 
 good money in it." 
 
 Hardwick was somewhat embarrassed. As usual, he 
 needed money badly and would have been happy to 
 earn it. At the same time, he knew very well McCabe s 
 reasons for making the offer. Hardwick had had experi 
 ence with him before. As a matter of fact, he owed 
 McCabe (at least, that was the way he put it to himself 
 to salve his conscience) four hundred dollars which he
 
 174 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 had borrowed from him from time to time in the past. 
 Not one cent of principal or interest had ever been 
 repaid. McCabe did not expect it; in fact, his payment 
 had been received in work which Hardwick had influ 
 enced in his direction, and Hardwick, had he been will 
 ing to look the facts squarely in the face, would have 
 been compelled to admit that, except in name, these 
 sums were bribes. But he did not look facts squarely in 
 the face and now he was again wavering. 
 
 Tm afraid I can t take on the work, Mac," he said, 
 after a short pause. 
 
 "Why not?" asked McCabe. 
 
 "In the first place, I m too busy. I ve got my hands 
 full with this catalogue. It s a big job." 
 
 "This work doesn t have to be done right away. I can 
 give you some tune on it." 
 
 Both men were fully cognizant of the real nature of the 
 matter they were discussing, but sedulously avoided any 
 mention of it. On the contrary, each of them spoke and 
 acted as though they were both innocent of anything 
 ulterior. 
 
 "I don t think it would be considered altogether 
 proper," said Hardwick. "You know I m on a salary." 
 
 "Sure I know. But this work wouldn t have to be 
 in the company s time. You wouldn t be helping a com 
 petitor of theirs, it s a different line altogether, and 
 besides, you wouldn t fall down on anything you d be 
 expected to do for them because you did this work for 
 me."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 175 
 
 "I know that," answered Hardwick, slowly, "but you 
 want to bid on their work and it might be suspected that 
 I was influenced in your favor because you gave me this 
 job." 
 
 "In the first place this affair doesn t have to be made 
 public property," said McCabe, with the air of impart 
 ing a great secret, "nobody but you and I need ever 
 know about it, and besides, I m not asking you to do 
 it because I want a chance to bid on your work. That s 
 all I want, a chance to bid. However, I m asking you 
 to do this job because of your ability. Your stuff s got 
 a style that nobody in this town can touch." 
 "Well, I ll think it over and let you know." 
 "All right, take your time. There s no rush." 
 "Just the same, I m much obliged to you, Mac." 
 "You re going to let me bid on this job, aren t you?" 
 Hardwick did not know how to persist in his refusal 
 and consented. He told himself that he was not bound 
 to consider the bid seriously. In fact, it was the easiest 
 way to get rid of him. "I ll send you a set of specifica 
 tions in the mail this evening," he said to McCabe, and 
 called the waiter for the check. Hardwick scanned the 
 check when it was brought and had already put his 
 hand in his pocket to pay it when he noticed that one 
 item had been omitted. He called the waiter s attention 
 to it and asked that it be corrected. When the waiter 
 had gone, McCabe said: 
 "I never bother about mistakes against the house.
 
 176 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 That s their lookout. It s their business to see that they 
 don t miss anything. If it s on me, that s a different 
 matter." 
 
 Hardwick smiled, but made no reply. 
 
 After his return to the office, he directed Ruth to 
 send the specifications to McCabe. She made no com 
 ment, although she wondered at it, as she was well 
 aware of the mediocre quality of work turned out in 
 the McCabe plant. 
 
 Hardwick was busy all afternoon on his layouts. It 
 seemed, today, as though it were impossible for him to 
 make any progress. One difficulty after another pre 
 sented itself, and when by great exertion he had com 
 pleted the preliminary layouts of four pages he found, 
 to his dismay, that he had left out two items in the first 
 of them which necessitated doing all of them over. He 
 was strongly tempted to lay the work aside for the day 
 and begin fresh the next morning, but he felt he could 
 not do it, he was much too far behind his schedule. 
 So he stuck at it, working under a sense of extreme 
 pressure and turning out poor copy. 
 
 It was five-thirty when he was sure it could be no 
 more than four o clock. He looked with disappointment 
 at the small result of his afternoon s work, laid it to one 
 side, and read and signed his mail. When that was com 
 pleted he went out to get a bite to eat and then returned 
 to his desk. 
 
 He worked for nearly two hours, making somewhat
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 177 
 
 better progress, and at the end of that time he was so 
 weary of the whole job that he wished he had never 
 undertaken it. He felt he could do no more and went 
 home. 
 
 When he came into his house it was after nine o clock. 
 Mrs. Hardwick was reading placidly, while Marian was 
 going through the motion of preparing her lessons for 
 the next day. The moment he came in, she dropped her 
 books and ran to him with her usual alacrity. It was 
 always the same, all of his weariness dropped from him 
 in the warmth of her greeting. She clung to him, while 
 he bent over and kissed his wife, who had not risen when 
 he entered. 
 
 "Henry," she said, "I have rather unpleasant news 
 for you." 
 
 "What is it?" he asked, rather weakly. It seemed that 
 an evil fate was pursuing him even here, in his home, 
 where he looked for rest and consolation. 
 
 "I have had a letter from Miss Strong, one of Alice s 
 teachers, in which she tells me that our dear girl has 
 not been well. She has had an attack of the grippe, and 
 has been quite ill. Miss Strong wrote that she does not 
 believe there is any occasion for concern and that she 
 will keep us fully informed. I wrote her immediately, 
 asking her if she thought my presence advisable and 
 announcing my readiness to come at a moment s 
 notice." 
 
 "You wrote," cried Hardwick. "Why didn t you tele 
 graph or telephone?"
 
 178 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "It isn t necessary, I assure you. The tone of Miss 
 Strong s letter was altogether reassuring and, besides, 
 she said most distinctly that there was no occasion for 
 concern. Further than that, I know Alice s constitution 
 very well. She is unusually vigorous and has always come 
 bravely through these little attacks. I am not at all 
 worried and I think it very foolish of you to take the 
 matter so seriously. If there is any occasion, I am quite 
 sure that Miss Strong will let us hear from her without 
 delay. She is a most discriminating young woman. 
 She made an excellent impression upon me when I met 
 her at the college, both as to her personality and attain 
 ments. She was much interested hi my article on Rous 
 seau, which she read in the University Magazine. She 
 was quite lavish in her praise of it. Really, I have every 
 confidence in her. Our child could not be in better hands." 
 Mrs. Hardwick beamed upon her husband as though she 
 wished to impart to him some of the sense of complete 
 self-sufficiency which constantly sustained her. 
 
 But Hardwick was plainly worried. This was his first 
 experience of the sort and it made him fearfully anxious. 
 He had a sense of impending calamity which resulted 
 in restlessness. He felt that he must do something. 
 
 "When was the letter dated?" he asked. 
 
 "Yesterday morning," answered his wife. 
 
 Hardwick looked at his watch. It was nine-thirty. 
 
 "I wonder if it is too late to call Miss Strong on the 
 long distance phone," he said.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 179 
 
 "Certainly it is," answered his wife. "It would take 
 you at least one hour, and by that time it would be 
 nearly eleven o clock. I think you are giving yourself 
 unnecessary concern. Miss Strong would be sure to 
 telephone or telegraph us if there were cause." 
 
 Hardwick made no reply. He tried to convince himself 
 that his fear was unreasonable; that there could be no 
 ground for apprehension; that attacks of grippe were 
 common, but to no avail. His unrest continued, he 
 found it impossible to sit still and got up and walked 
 about the room. Marian felt his trouble, and, sympathet 
 ically, wished that she might do something to alleviate 
 it. He found that his nervousness was not allayed by 
 motion. Instead, it seemed to increase, and presently 
 he sat down again and made an attempt to read. But 
 he could not fasten his attention, and, with the hope 
 of sleep, sought his bed. 
 
 It seemed to him the next morning that he had not 
 had ten minutes of consecutive slumber. He felt that he 
 had spent most of the night awake and that the sleep 
 he had had brought only disquieting dreams. In fact, 
 he awoke frequently during the night, and in his waking 
 spells every footfall he heard in the street seemed to 
 him that of a messenger bringing unwelcome tidings. He 
 made no attempt at consecutive thought, he did not try 
 to apply reason to his trouble, he was simply panic- 
 stricken, full of foreboding evil, deeply miserable. 
 
 He arose early, feeling more fatigued than when he
 
 180 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 went to bed. He dressed hastily, found himself unable to 
 eat his breakfast, and hurried to the office, where he 
 immediately sent a telegram to Miss Strong, asking for 
 news by return wire.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 HAVING sent the telegram, Hardwick felt 
 somewhat better. At least he had done some 
 thing, and the feeling of complete helpless 
 ness which had controlled him was slightly mitigated. 
 
 He was about half way through his mail when he was 
 called on the telephone by Mrs. Hardwick. She told him, 
 in a tone which he thought showed plainly that she was 
 attempting to conceal her anxiety, that she had just 
 received a telegram from Miss Strong advising her to 
 come at once, as Alice s condition had suddenly grown 
 serious. 
 
 "I ll go with you," said Hardwick immediately. 
 "We ll go to New York on the ten o clock train, if you 
 can be ready in time, and we ll take the one o clock from 
 the Grand Central. That ought to bring us there about 
 seven o clock this evening. Can you make it?" 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick assured him that she could and said 
 she would pack some things in her bag for him. Hard 
 wick called Ruth and explained the situation to her. He 
 told her that he expected to return the next evening on 
 the night train, so that he would miss only two days. 
 He would leave Mrs. Hardwick with Alice until she 
 was completely restored to health. He gave her direc 
 tions with regard to all matters which he thought might 
 come up during the next two days and asked her to 
 
 181
 
 182 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 explain to Mr. Pemberton the cause of his absence. 
 He then left the office although it was no later than 
 quarter after nine and he could reach the station easily 
 in fifteen minutes. 
 
 Now that he was actually out of the office, and, as he 
 felt, on his way to Alice, his hopefulness asserted itself 
 in some measure. He told himself that it had been most 
 absurd for him to yield completely to panic at the first 
 sign of danger. Alice was a strong, active girl. She had 
 every chance in the world, even though her illness might 
 be more serious than they knew. There was no doubt that 
 the health of the girls in the college was carefully watched 
 by the authorities and that when they were ill they had 
 the best medical attention and nursing. 
 
 But, even as he told himself these things, fear lurked 
 in his bosom, and he railed at the distance that separated 
 her from him; at the doubt that he must feel until he 
 knew that she was safe beyond peradventure. Again, he 
 gave himself up to sheer misery, to hopeless turning the 
 matter over and over in his mind. 
 
 He arrived at the station ten minutes before Mrs. 
 Hardwick appeared, and employed this time in purchas 
 ing railway tickets and parlor car seats. They met at 
 a place in the station which they had appointed. He 
 saw her coming through the crowd before she had 
 perceived him, and he noted that her face wore an 
 expression of anxiety that he did not remember ever 
 having seen upon it before. As soon as she saw him
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 183 
 
 it vanished, and, in its stead, she wore her usual 
 benevolent smile. He wondered vaguely whether she 
 wore it intentionally, for, obviously, it was intentional, 
 to help him, to encourage him. He could not decide, 
 but, whatever the cause, he was grateful and admired 
 her for her strength. She had no sooner come up to 
 him than she began to talk. 
 
 "I m quite sure, Henry," she said, "that Miss Strong 
 is unnecessarily alarmed. I do not doubt that it is a 
 more serious case than I thought, but I have every 
 confidence that the issue will be favorable. Have you 
 the tickets?" 
 
 He told her that he had attended to everything and 
 led the way to the waiting room, as it was much too 
 early for the gate for their train to be open. They sat 
 down and Mrs. Hardwick began again with her assur 
 ances that the case, serious as it might be, would be 
 bound to end as they wished. Hardwick took small 
 note of what she said, he was much too depressed and 
 anxious to be set at rest by her words. But as she con 
 tinued, apparently without noticing his obvious lack 
 of interested attention, he found himself wondering 
 whether or not her endless flow of talk was no more 
 than a mere nervous reflex, an outlet for her suppressed 
 emotion. And, while this seemed a perfectly reasonable 
 explanation, he could not deny the fact that she 
 appeared to believe what she said and drew comfort 
 therefrom. It reminded him of the faith of a Christian
 
 184 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Scientist, who, by dint of constant profession of belief 
 in the non-existence of disease, came finally to a sort 
 of immunity, more or less general, as the case might 
 be. But these were not active thoughts in his mind; 
 they came, as one might say, into a secondary stratum 
 of his consciousness. He was only actively aware of 
 them quite some time after he had begun to think of 
 the subject, and when he was, he put the whole matter 
 out of his mind, with a sort of horror at the idea that 
 he could indulge in this sort of speculation when his 
 child was lying ill, perhaps at the point of death, miles 
 away from him. 
 
 And then the crier announced their train and they 
 went out on the platform, and, in Hardwick s mind, 
 walked endlessly until they reached the car in which 
 their seats had been engaged. And then it seemed ages 
 to him until the train started. 
 
 When it was finally in motion, he had a sudden sense 
 of relief. At last they were on the way. Strange to say, 
 Mrs. Hardwick had not spoken since they were on 
 board; she sat, looking out of the car window, her face 
 wearing its usual benignity, and Hardwick again found 
 himself wondering at her and about her. Could it be 
 possible that she did not share his anxiety? He knew 
 well that Alice was her favorite of the two girls, that 
 she invariably chose her to receive any special benefit 
 when a choice had to be made between them, and yet, 
 in the face of a call like this, which could be the result
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 185 
 
 only of fear of the most serious consequences, she was 
 outwardly calm, and perfectly confident that she was 
 beyond the reach of the shafts of ill fortune. 
 
 And then he remembered she had always been like 
 this, always certain that the fates were powerless 
 against her. Poverty, lack of opportunity, mediocrity 
 could not touch her; they might ruffle her serenity for 
 a moment, but always in the end they had no sting for 
 her, they could not cause her more than a fleeting 
 regret and then, apparently, they were forgotten. 
 
 Presently Mrs. Hardwick began again to talk to him. 
 She suddenly remembered that this was her day at the 
 Red Cross Auxiliary and she treated him to a long tale 
 of the confusion that would surely result because of 
 her absence. He listened with half of his attention, 
 while the rest of it was devoted to a dull round of 
 alternate fear and hope. But it was an eccentric round, 
 the fear predominated. 
 
 At last they were in New York and went immediately 
 to the Grand Central station, where they had their 
 lunch. It would be more accurate to say that only 
 Mrs. Hardwick had lunch, for it was impossible for him 
 to do more than swallow a few mouthfuls. At all events, 
 it occupied their time and he did not suffer the same 
 misery of waiting for the train that he had experienced 
 earlier in the day. 
 
 The motion of the train again relieved him even 
 though it appeared that it was running exceedingly
 
 186 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 slowly. He began to talk, for almost the first time on 
 the trip, about Alice, offering conjectures as to her 
 probable state. Mrs. Hardwick met this with a renewal 
 of her assurances that, however serious the disease 
 might appear, she was sure that Alice would get well. 
 Hardwick listened to her with the devout wish that he 
 could believe her. But he did not, it was impossible. 
 
 In the middle of the afternoon their train was held 
 up for nearly an hour owing to some obstruction on the 
 tracks. Hardwick could not keep his seat but went out 
 of the train and walked up and down most of the time. 
 When, at last, the train was again moving forward, 
 it seemed to him that his limit of suffering had been 
 reached. Never in his life had he been so unhappy. No 
 longer did he face concrete facts, or even definite sorrow, 
 but was conscious only of the deepest dejection, an 
 utter let-down of his whole being such as he had never 
 known. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick too was showing signs of the strain, 
 coupled with the physical fatigue of the long journey. 
 She no longer talked, but sat in her chair, staring into 
 vacancy. 
 
 At last they left the train and took one of the waiting 
 cabs for the college. It was a trip of but a few minutes, 
 and when they descended and began their walk into 
 the building, it was with the utmost difficulty that 
 Hardwick restrained his pace so as not to outdistance 
 his wife.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 187 
 
 As they entered the hall, he saw a young woman 
 coming towards them; Mrs. Hard wick murmured "Miss 
 Strong." It was not necessary, for he divined that it 
 was she, and much more. There was no need for words, 
 the look upon her face told him that the worst had 
 happened; that they had arrived too late. 
 
 At that supreme moment Hardwick suddenly recov 
 ered control of himself. No longer was he beset by the 
 gnawing fear which had consumed him for nearly twen 
 ty-four hours. That was gone, and, in its place, was the 
 strength which came with the terrible certainty which 
 he must meet. He turned to his wife and was shocked to 
 see an ashen pallor on her face, a look of indecision, of 
 doubt, of incredulity. He took her arm and led her to a 
 chair. 
 
 "Oh! Henry," was all she said, and sat there, speech 
 less, utterly crushed. This could not be; this could not 
 come to her. She could not believe it. In her mind but 
 one idea continuously recurred, this constant rejection 
 of the definite fact. She sat there, dull, impassive, with 
 this sing-song of denial sounding within her, and then, 
 suddenly, as with a snap, the truth prevailed with a 
 shock that appeared to halt her every function. Liter 
 ally, she seemed to crumple, her head fell on her bosom, 
 and her body looked as though it had shrunken. 
 
 She did not faint in the physical sense, but she was 
 barely conscious; all of her faculties were numbed, she 
 scarcely lived for those few minutes. Hardwick spoke
 
 188 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 to her, whispering words of intended encouragement, 
 but she did not hear. She hardly knew what had hap 
 pened, the shock had been too great, and her whole nerv 
 ous organization had been disordered, leaving her with 
 only the elements of consciousness. 
 
 And then, gradually, little by little, order was re-estab 
 lished within her, and, with the recognition of what had 
 happened, she was seized with a fury of protest, of violent 
 revolt, of injustice, of injury. Inchoate as these emotions 
 were within her, incapable as she was of the expression 
 which would have relieved her, she suffered from them 
 as though they burnt within her, as though she felt the 
 pain of actual physical contact with fire, in horrible, 
 helpless anguish. 
 
 For several minutes she sat thus; unhearing, unheed 
 ing the words which Miss Strong and her husband spoke 
 to her from time to time, and then, suddenly, she 
 looked up and said: 
 
 "Take me to her." 
 
 "Are you sure you are well enough?" asked Miss 
 Strong. 
 
 "Take me to her," repeated Mrs. Hardwick, and 
 arose, swaying slightly when she was on her feet. 
 Hardwick took her arm, and together they went to the 
 room where Alice lay. 
 
 On the way, Miss Strong explained that during the 
 night Alice had developed an acute double pneumonia 
 which had progressed at a frightful pace despite every
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 189 
 
 effort that had been made. She had died at half-past 
 six in the evening. She had been attended during the 
 afternoon by an eminent specialist from Boston, as 
 well as two other physicians. No stone had been left 
 unturned, nothing within the best medical knowledge 
 had been left untried. 
 
 As Mrs. Hardwick looked upon her daughter s body, 
 she suddenly collapsed and, this time, she really lost 
 consciousness. A physician was called instantly and 
 she was put to bed, where she speedily recovered her 
 senses, and then under the influence of a powerful 
 opiate fell into a deep slumber. 
 
 As soon as Hardwick saw that she was asleep, he 
 went out for a walk. He felt that he must be utterly 
 alone to appraise the situation, and he believed that a 
 walk in the cool night would quiet his jaded nerves. 
 
 He was calm now; much depressed but not agitated. 
 He felt his loss keenly; his love for both of his girls was 
 complete, the best that was in him. Even though Marian 
 was his favorite, Alice s place in his deepest affections 
 had never been open to any question. And now, he 
 thought bitterly, they must face the future without her. 
 Ah! Well. Fortune had no favors for him. At every turn 
 he was met by adversity and ill-luck, and now this 
 crowning trial. Why was it? he mused. Why was he 
 denied his share of happiness? Why must misfortune 
 always be his portion? And then he thought of Marian, 
 of her grief and consternation when the news should
 
 190 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 come to her, and, instantly, his sympathy was entirely 
 enlisted in her behalf, he forgot his own loss in the hope 
 that he might be able to lessen hers. 
 
 He walked for about half an hour and then went to 
 bed calmly and peacefully, though sorrowfully. At all 
 events, he was a man and he must bear his trials with 
 fortitude. He recognized that sorrow is part of the game 
 and that when it comes, it must be met courageously 
 and without whimpering. 
 
 It was in this frame of mind that he sought slumber 
 and its peace was not long denied him.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE funeral was set for the following Monday, 
 four days after Alice s death. It was a com 
 paratively expensive affair; some elementary 
 quality in Mrs. Hardwick made it necessary for her to 
 demand a certain amount of pomp and circumstance in 
 this sad business to satisfy her feeling for what was fit 
 ting and proper. Hardwick had not offered any opposi 
 tion. If he thought of the expense, which was unlikely 
 in his state of complete dejection, it was but momentary. 
 It did not seem to him that anything mattered very 
 much just now, and he acquiesced in every proposal 
 that was made with regard to the affair. He wondered 
 dully how there could be room in his wife s mind for 
 insistence upon such details in view of her sincere grief, 
 for there was no chance for doubt as to that. 
 
 The first great shock and temporary display of help 
 lessness once passed, Mrs. Hardwick s well-marked indi 
 viduality reasserted itself. She talked freely, much too 
 freely, Hardwick thought, of Alice, of her qualities, of 
 her life from babyhood to the present. It seemed to 
 Hardwick much too sacred for utterance, and, although 
 he did not venture to incur the charge of hyper-sensitive 
 ness which a mention of his views would have brought 
 from his wife, he writhed under it. He did not object to 
 her mention of these things to him, it was that she spoke 
 
 191
 
 192 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 of them to everyone with whom they came into contact. 
 And when they were again in their own home, they were 
 almost constantly receiving visitors who came to offer 
 their condolence. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick saw everybody. It was not in her 
 nature to hide her sorrow; she shared it with the world 
 precisely as she shared all of her thoughts. Neither 
 reticence nor circumspection moved her to silence, and 
 it seemed to him that she had a distinct satisfaction in 
 the presence of those of their friends who came to express 
 their sympathy. While she spoke to them in a subdued 
 tone, and reverted constantly to the subject of her great 
 sorrow, there was no real diminution of her volubility. 
 She still talked almost all of the time even if she spoke 
 more slowly and more quietly. 
 
 She was interested in knowing the names of the send 
 ers of all of their cards of condolence, and collected them 
 carefully. She personally accepted the offer of service, 
 made by some of their friends, particularly with regard 
 to the purchase of suitable mourning apparel. He won- 
 dred at her; it did not seem possible that she could have 
 so much interest in such trifling matters when she was 
 suffering from the greatest sorrow that she had ever 
 known. But that she had the interest and that she was 
 perfectly mistress of herself were unquestionable. 
 
 Among their visitors was McCabe, the printer. Before 
 he left, he drew Hardwick to one side and asked him 
 whether he was in need of ready money, with an offer
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 193 
 
 to lend him any sum which he might require. Hardwick 
 thanked him but declined; he had just received his 
 October salary and that was ample for immediate needs. 
 
 During the days between their return home and the 
 funeral, Hardwick s principal concern was Marian. 
 She had received the news quietly and without any 
 marked display of emotion, but later, when he suddenly 
 missed her and went in search, he found her in her room 
 in a paroxysm of tears. He comforted her as best he 
 could and, thereafter, she restrained the evidences of 
 her emotion, and went about, silent, subdued, wearing 
 an expression of the most intense grief. She was his great 
 comfort, now as always. It seemed that she divined his 
 moods and her presence invariably ministered to his 
 need of the moment, whatever that might be. 
 
 Hardwick went to the office the morning after the 
 funeral, very much worried about the time that had 
 been lost in the preparation of the catalogue. It was the 
 thirteenth of November, when at least half of the illus 
 trations should have been well hi hand, and only one- 
 quarter of them had been begun. He attempted to plan 
 the balance of the work, allowing himself an extra week, 
 the first one of December, for the preparatory work. He 
 felt that this would be safe, as the printer could begin 
 with the earlier pages while the others were under way. 
 He recognized that it would call for the greatest effort 
 and that there was no room for mistakes of any kind. 
 
 When he reached the office, he called Ruth, and, with-
 
 194 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 out waiting for any account of what had happened in 
 the office during his absence, began immediately to dis 
 cuss his plans for pushing the catalogue work to its 
 conclusion. She told him that Pemberton had inquired 
 as to the status of the project while Hard wick was away 
 and that he was inclined to give up the idea of finishing 
 it and, instead, favored duplicating their last year s 
 catalogue. 
 
 "That won t do at all," said Hardwick, "I ll see him 
 as soon as he comes in." 
 
 Pemberton greeted him as though nothing in particu 
 lar had happened and Hardwick was so much interested 
 in saving his catalogue that he did not notice it at the 
 time. When it occurred to him afterwards, he was quite 
 willing to admit that he never looked upon Pemberton 
 as being altogether human. But this did not alter the 
 fact that he felt hurt. 
 
 Pemberton listened to the explanation of his plan to 
 make up for the lost time, and, after a short silence, 
 said: 
 
 "I think it would be wiser not to take the chance of 
 further delay. You know how I feel about being on time, 
 and it seems to me that you are banking on everything 
 going just as you plan it and your experience must have 
 shown you that that never happens. Better give up 
 the scheme now, while there s yet time to get out a book 
 like last year s." 
 
 "But think of the money we ve spent already and
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 195 
 
 remember that we ve got the cuts for the first thirty 
 pages practically completed. I ll work every night, if 
 it s necessary, and I ll be ready next week with enough 
 copy for the printer to begin with. I ll put it through all 
 right." 
 
 "Very well," answered Pemberton, "but it seems to 
 me you re going to have an awful pull." 
 
 "I ll come through all right," said Hardwick, and 
 left the office. 
 
 He returned to his desk, where he found an accumula 
 tion of mail. Among it were several dunning letters, and 
 a notice of an overdue premium on one of his life insur 
 ance policies. He was somewhat upset by these evi 
 dences of his constant lack of funds, but he was too 
 much engrossed by the work on the catalogue to let it 
 trouble him for more than a moment. 
 
 He plunged into the work with the energy of despair. 
 During the morning he saw the men who were making 
 the illustrations and was dismayed to learn that scarcely 
 anything had been done in his absence. Instead of the 
 thirty pages upon which he had counted, he found that 
 barely twenty had been completed. The balance had 
 been held up for various reasons, all of them depending 
 upon his return. However, in his determination to get 
 through in time, he mastered his disappointment and 
 called upon the photographers and designers for extra 
 ordinary effort, telling them that his position depended 
 on the prompt completion of this work. They promised
 
 196 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 to do everything that lay in their power, and Hardwick 
 was again encouraged. 
 
 During the balance of the week excellent progress 
 was made and, when Hardwick was on his way home, 
 very late on Saturday afternoon, he felt that he would 
 pull through in time. 
 
 His work had so completely engaged his attention 
 during the week that he scarcely had a moment in 
 which to dwell upon his sorrow. He had worked every 
 evening, and had come home at night so utterly fatigued 
 that he had had only sufficient energy to tumble into 
 bed. His great loss was in his mind constantly, of course, 
 but the pressure of his business had prevented him from 
 dwelling upon it. 
 
 But when he went home on Saturday afternoon the 
 high pressure under which he had been working all 
 week was relaxed, and, in the reaction, he felt broken, 
 unhappy. What was it all worth? he asked himself, 
 as he walked down the street. Always before, in the face 
 of adversity, he had had the feeling that his trouble was 
 but transitory; his wounds, whatever they might be, 
 were on the surface only. But this was different, he felt 
 that he had been hurt vitally; no longer was the citadel 
 of his family intact, his loss was irreparable. 
 
 In the physical fatigue which he suffered, morbid 
 thought had full play. He was ready to capitulate, to 
 admit that he no longer had any hold on life that was 
 worth while. Black despair seized him, and, for the
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 197 
 
 first time in his experience, he felt old, his force spent, 
 the game no longer worth the candle. 
 
 It was in this mood that he opened the door of his 
 house and let himself into the semi-darkness of the hall. 
 And out of this half light there came the figure of 
 Marian, who had been sitting there awaiting his coming. 
 Her arms about his neck and her welcoming kisses 
 worked a magical transformation. He was a man again, 
 new strength came to him in the love which he bore this 
 dear child. She was left to him, he thought, almost 
 exultantly, and asked himself what manner of man he 
 was to forget so easily the blessings that were yet his. 
 
 Together they went up the stair to Mrs. Hardwick. 
 She was sitting in her bedroom knitting and, appar 
 ently, had been deep in thought. She greeted him in 
 her usual manner, in which, however, the old cheerful 
 ness was lacking. He sat down and questioned her as 
 to the happenings of the day. 
 
 "We had quite a number of callers," she said. "It s 
 beautiful the way my friends have come to me to 
 express their sympathy. It is a most eloquent testi 
 monial of their high regard, and, were it not for the 
 sorrow which they come to share, it would be a source 
 of the greatest pride to me. Mrs. L. Percival Sedley 
 was among the callers. I was much honored; a woman, so 
 occupied with the manifold duties which her high posi 
 tion in the community imposes, to find time to call on 
 me, shows thereby not only her fine feeling, but her
 
 198 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 right to the exalted station which she holds in society." 
 Mrs. Hardwick, as usual, was being carried away on 
 the wings of her own verbal fluency, and became 
 progressively cheerful. In the same tone, she went on 
 to speak of other matters of interest to her, interesting 
 because, in her view, all of them tended to magnify 
 her own importance. 
 
 Hardwick again wondered at her, his thoughts far 
 from her actual words. He thought it remarkable that 
 she could be so utterly self -centered that she should find 
 personal satisfaction in visits of condolence. She was 
 to be envied, he thought, hi being thus able to maintain 
 her interest in her own personality, no matter what 
 happened. She had always been like this, always the 
 same, everything was grist which came to her mill. 
 
 "Mrs. Sedley told me," Mrs. Hardwick continued, 
 "that they miss me sadly at the Red Cross. It appears 
 that things are not going very well without me. I 
 really had no idea that my services were so important. 
 Of course, I have always taken a great interest in the 
 work; it has always been my habit to devote myself 
 to any cause which aroused my enthusiasm, and, in 
 this case, I have done the best I knew how, little 
 thinking that my efforts were so thoroughly appre 
 ciated. Mrs. Sedley told me, among other things, that 
 Mrs. Harley, the instructor, was quite distressed at 
 my enforced absence and hoped that I would soon 
 rejoin them, even though she recognized fully, under
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 199 
 
 the circumstances, that it would be a great sacrifice 
 on my part. Really, I have almost decided to return 
 in a week or so. I do not think that, at a time like this, 
 we may allow our private sorrows to interfere with our 
 usefulness to the public. With the whole civilized world 
 at war, with our people, our government " 
 
 "Mother, "interrupted Marian, who had been listening 
 to this speech with great interest, "do you know what I 
 think you could do wonderfully and make a lot of money, 
 too?" She was perfectly serious and Mrs. Hardwick, who 
 usually would not brook interruption, turned to her and, 
 struck by the sincere earnestness of her tone and ex 
 pression, asked: 
 
 "What, Marian?" 
 
 "You ought to be a lecturer. You say things so 
 beautifully." 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was much pleased. There was no 
 doubt of the sincerity of the compliment. 
 
 "I make no doubt, Marian," she said, "that I could 
 add substantially to the family exchequer were I to 
 devote myself to public speaking. I have never thought 
 of it before, but it is a matter well worth considering. 
 Perhaps some day I shall have occasion to use what 
 small gifts I have in that direction. At all events it is 
 an interesting subject for thought." 
 
 "You sure could put it across all right," said Marian, 
 and her mother was so much absorbed by the vision of 
 herself in the public eye that she forgot to reprove 
 her daughter for her verbal delinquency.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 ON the evening of that Saturday, Pemberton 
 took Ruth to the theatre. He had frequently 
 invited lier to go with him to various places 
 of amusement, but she had invariably declined. She 
 had never been able to explain, even to herself, why she 
 did not wish to accompany him in public, but she was 
 very sure, nevertheless, that in the main she did not 
 wish it. Her refusal was always definite, even though 
 the emotion which prompted it was far from being so. 
 That she was fond of him she could not conceal from 
 herself; indeed, she did not wish to, but that her fond 
 ness for him was sufficient to make her willing to marry 
 him she doubted greatly. Particularly when she was 
 with him, did she feel the power he had over her; it 
 seemed as though he had but to pipe for her to dance. 
 And her very recognition of this power made her shrink 
 from exposing herself to its influence. 
 
 She was a very proud girl, jealous of her independ 
 ence. Something in her made her prize it far beyond 
 her ability to justify it on any reasonable grounds. 
 She simply wanted to retain it, and, as his wife, even 
 as his fiancee, she felt that it would go from her. She 
 was sure that, the die once cast, she would be utterly 
 dependent upon him, that there would be loosened 
 
 200
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 201 
 
 within her emotions which she held to be not exactly 
 ignoble, but perhaps unworthy. 
 
 It was in this spirit that she had at first repelled his 
 advances, and, when he pressed them notwithstanding, 
 that she had pleaded for time and had finally made him 
 accept the delay of one year in which she was to make 
 up her mind. Since that agreement had been made he 
 visited her at irregular intervals; irregular because she 
 frequently refused to allow him to come when he 
 proposed it. She felt that she could not hold to her 
 determination if he pressed her too often. And he 
 continued to be an ardent suitor; even when he held 
 to the letter of their agreement, his mere presence was 
 an active advocate of his cause, his words adding but 
 little force to the mute appeal of his personality. 
 
 Perhaps Ruth shrank from appearing with him in 
 public because she felt that, hi doing so, she was taking 
 the chance of publishing an attachment which she 
 was most desirous of concealing, certainly until she 
 had reached a definite conclusion. She would have been 
 compelled to admit that this was rather a silly idea, 
 had she been put to the test, but, since she never 
 mentioned it, she was not called upon to defend it. 
 She had only consented this time because, literally, 
 she had run out of excuses. 
 
 Pemberton followed her down the aisle of the audi 
 torium with pride. To him, she was the most beautiful 
 woman in the world, and he felt that she must be so
 
 202 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 to everyone who had eyes to see. He was not an observ 
 ant man, particularly with regard to details of women s 
 dress, and, had he looked away from her, he would have 
 been unable to remember a single detail of her attire. 
 All he knew of it was that it set off and accentuated her 
 great beauty. In fact, she was dressed very well, 
 although very simply, and she was really a very good 
 looking girl, much above the average. 
 
 All through the performance he was so conscious 
 of her presence at his side that it was with difficulty 
 that he maintained his interest in the play. He was not 
 much given to going to the theatre; he could never get 
 over its unreality and the stronger the bid it made for 
 emotion, the colder it left him. 
 
 Not so his companion. She yielded herself with aban 
 don to the play. She did not analyze, she did not ques 
 tion so long as the probabilities were not too greatly 
 disregarded and the acting was passable. Several times 
 he turned to look at her and was amused and pleased 
 by her deep absorption in what was going on upon the 
 stage. And as, from time to time, he looked at her, 
 totally unconscious of his glance, he wondered what it 
 was that made him desire her so ardently. Why was it 
 held for her to be the one woman who had ever been 
 able to dominate his thought. He could find many 
 virtues in her, much that was admirable and praise 
 worthy, but he knew that there must be many other 
 girls who were similarly gifted, perhaps even more
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 203 
 
 generously endowed than she, and he knew that the 
 reason was not here. 
 
 It was subtler than that because he knew that he had 
 not chosen her. His desire for her had imposed itself 
 upon him so thoroughly, so completely that he was 
 sure that it would persist in the face of any discourage 
 ment. He was confident, were they ever to marry, 
 that he must find in her, in the intimacy of conjugal 
 life, traits and ideas that would not please him, some, 
 even, that might displease him; but still he would want 
 her, would always want her. Perhaps it was even the 
 admixture of these elements that made her so utterly 
 charming to him. 
 
 Between the acts, he listened to her remarks about 
 the play and the actors with the greatest pleasure. 
 He marvelled at the keenness of her criticism, at the 
 accuracy of her appreciation, even though her standards 
 were so far removed from his. She spoke modestly but 
 with conviction, and, as he listened, he found himself 
 envying the freshness, the unspoiled ingenuousness of 
 her attitude. 
 
 After the theatre, he took her to a fashionable 
 restaurant for supper. He had not mentioned the matter 
 to her; he simply took her acquiescence for granted. She 
 went with him without taking thought and it was only 
 when they had actually entered the restaurant that 
 it occurred to her that she was being led by him without 
 question, by the force of his dominating personality,
 
 204 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 and it piqued her although she gave no sign of it. 
 It would always be like this, she thought; she would 
 always be subject to him, dependent upon him for her 
 every course of action without question, without 
 protest. And he would wield his sway over her without 
 effort, without even conscious determination. 
 
 But these were but transitory thoughts and she gave 
 herself up to the pleasure of the adventure, for to Ruth, 
 despite her twenty-five years, this whole evening s 
 experience was an adventure. She had gone to the 
 theatre with men before this and had been entertained 
 by them at supper, but never had there been present 
 any element which engaged her affections. With one 
 exception, none of her former escorts had ever had any 
 opportunity to make known to her any aspiration he 
 might have had to hold a position in her regard. The 
 exception was Horace Gerson, who had let it be seen 
 very clearly that the smallest encouragement would 
 bring him suppliant to her feet. But he bored Ruth 
 beyond measure, she accepted a moderate amount of 
 his attention only because her mother was continually 
 making opportunities for him. At that, Ruth barely 
 treated him civilly, but he persisted nevertheless. 
 
 Pemberton amused her greatly by his remarks about 
 the people they saw around them. His sense of humor 
 was of a very special kind; it manifested itself in caustic, 
 rather sardonic comment on the weaknesses of his fellow 
 men. His smile was peculiar, it seemed rather wry to
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 205 
 
 Ruth, even as she laughed at his trenchant observations. 
 Suddenly she remembered that she had never really 
 heard him laugh openly, freely, as most men do. His 
 laugh always seemed to be a concession, a conscious 
 action undertaken with purpose. 
 
 But even while she remembered this, she gave herself 
 up completely to his mood and entered into the spirit 
 of his shrewd comment. How keen he was, she thought, 
 how superior to the majority of men who filled the 
 restaurant, many of them undoubtedly idlers, with no 
 serious purpose in life. 
 
 A trio of army officers entered the restaurant and 
 seated themselves at a table near them. They were 
 splendid looking young fellows, in the pink of condition, 
 wearing their simple uniforms with grace and distinc 
 tion. Ruth found them very attractive and called Pem- 
 berton s attention to them. 
 
 "Don t you think they re fine-looking boys?" she 
 asked. 
 
 Pemberton turned and looked at them fixedly for a 
 moment. 
 
 "Yes, they are," he said. "And they ve got the right 
 kind of clothes on, too." 
 
 "What do you mean?" she asked. 
 
 "I mean that every able-bodied man, who can possi 
 bly do it, should be in uniform. We ve got a big job on 
 hand in this war and the. only way to put it through is 
 to get at it, and get at it right. I feel like a slacker 
 myself."
 
 206 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "But not everybody can go," said Ruth in dismay. 
 The thought of his going away caused her pain, a pain 
 so sudden, so unexpected that she was not conscious 
 that she had shown her feeling. Indeed, she had not 
 herself known until that moment just how much her 
 sense of security was based on the knowledge that he 
 was at hand when wanted. 
 
 "Of course not," he answered. "Not everybody can 
 go and fight, but actual fighting s only one part of the 
 game. For every actual fighting man there must be 
 about a dozen doing other things. You know a soldier 
 has to eat, travel, wear clothes, carry arms, use ammu 
 nition. And behind all of these things there has to be 
 organization: Clerks, typewriters, bookkeepers, adver 
 tising. It s just a big business after all and the only 
 trouble is that you don t really have time to build up 
 your organization, everything s wanted at once. And 
 then there s politics in it. Unfit men get in the way of 
 capable ones and gum the game. And tradition, and 
 everything that causes delay and waste. Oh! it makes 
 me mad to think about it." 
 
 Ruth looked at him in admiring wonder. Never had 
 she seen him more earnest, more animated. After a 
 short pause, she said to him: 
 
 "I didn t imagine you felt so strongly about it as 
 that." 
 
 "It s funny, isn t it?" he answered. 
 
 "Funny! how?" she queried.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 207 
 
 "You know," he said, seriously. "If you think it out 
 calmly and dispassionately, you can t find any real 
 reason for what people call patriotism. I hate the word." 
 
 Ruth interrupted. "Who was it that said that 
 Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel ?" she asked. 
 
 "I don t know. I never heard it before, but it says 
 exactly what I was thinking about. You hear a lot of 
 white-livered crooks talking about patriotism, and love 
 of country and all that, and you wonder whether they re 
 hypocrites or just stupid asses. I ve thought about it a 
 lot, and I can t see why my country should be better 
 than any other just because I happened to be born in 
 it. And that, when it s all boiled down, is about what it 
 amounts to. If this is a better country than any other, 
 there s no particular credit to me for having been born 
 in it, I didn t have anything to do with it. I suppose the 
 Germans feel the same way as other people and I don t 
 blame them. But here s what gets me : I know there s no 
 real reason for loving your country and wanting to do 
 your part when there s trouble, but the fact is that I 
 do and I want to take my part, too." 
 
 Ruth s eyes glistened as she said, "I think it s fine 
 of you to feel that way. But don t you think that what 
 you re doing is important; don t you think that some 
 people have to keep things moving while the others do 
 the fighting, so that the business of the country doesn t 
 stop?" 
 
 "Of course," he answered. "Some things, necessary
 
 208 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 to the war, must be kept going. But they don t have to 
 be pushed as they would be in ordinary times. Our con 
 cern could get along without me and I could help 
 in some real war work. I ve been thinking that " 
 
 But Ruth interrupted him again. "No one could run 
 our business as well as you do and you know it." 
 
 "No, I don t," he answered and then paused, his 
 attention having suddenly been attracted by theentrance 
 of a man and woman who took seats near them. "Do 
 you see that man that just sat down," he said in a 
 low tone. 
 
 Ruth followed his glance. "Yes," she said. 
 
 " That s William Cartwright, thebigshipbuilder." And 
 he began to talk about him, telling her of big deals that 
 Cartwright had undertaken. After that, their talk went 
 to other subjects which occupied them until they left 
 the restaurant. 
 
 In the cab, on the way home, they were silent for a 
 while, but presently Ruth said: 
 
 "I ve had a lovely time this evening. I m awfully glad 
 I came." 
 
 Pemberton was delighted. Her tone, more than her 
 words, gave him the feeling that he had come nearer 
 to her tonight than ever before. 
 
 "I ve enjoyed it, too," he answered, simply. "I " 
 but the words would not come. For once, he was at a 
 loss, and, instinctively, his hand sought hers, and, having 
 gained it, he was transported by a gentle return of the 
 pressure with which he grasped it.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 209 
 
 "Ruth," he said, his voice husky with emotion, "you 
 do want me, don t you?" 
 
 "Oh! Fred," she said, "don t ask me now, please." 
 She tried to withdraw her hand, but he held it firmly for 
 a moment. Then he released it, and, putting his arm 
 around her neck, drew her face to his. She scarcely 
 resisted, and, as he kissed her, all of her resistance 
 vanished and she returned his caress with an ardor which 
 took him by storm. 
 
 "Oh! Ruth," was all he said. 
 
 But she, feeling the imminence of defeat, regained 
 control of herself by a great effort, and drew away from 
 him. She was dismayed, frightened, angry with herself. 
 She knew that she wanted him, that her body cried for 
 him, but she had felt this all along. This was the very 
 thing which she had dreaded; this would make her his 
 slave. She feared her own passion, and summoning every 
 bit of resolution of which she was capable, crushing within 
 her the imperious call of her blood, she said, as coldly as 
 she could: 
 
 "You re not fair. You re not true to your promise. 
 I ll never go out with you again." She looked out of the 
 cab window, away from him. 
 
 Pemberton was amazed beyond the power of expres 
 sion and sat there moodily. He had not acted with 
 intention, he had simply been carried away. And as he 
 gradually became calmer, he tried to tell himself that 
 he had not acted well, but there was no conviction in it.
 
 210 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 He did not speak for several minutes and then only 
 when he had decided upon the course which he believed 
 would most likely repair the damage to her feelings. 
 
 "Please forgive me, Ruth," he said contritely. "I 
 really didn t know what I was doing, I was simply 
 carried away. It won t happen again." 
 
 "How do I know?" she asked with a touch of disdain. 
 "How do I know you won t be carried away again? 
 I guess the best plan would be not to expose you to the 
 temptation." She managed to affect a scorn which she 
 surely did not feel. Oh! if she only could be like other 
 girls, she thought, and give herself to this man whom 
 she wanted above all others. 
 
 "Please, Ruth," he said, and there was no doubt of 
 his contrition. "Don t talk like that. I m awfully sorry." 
 
 But she was obdurate and would not answer. His con 
 trition went and he was angry. 
 
 "Well, if you won t take my word," he said, "I ll see 
 that there s no occasion for further temptation. I ve 
 been wanting to go into the service for several months, 
 and the only thing that kept me out of it was you; I 
 didn t want to go away from you. But now, my mind s 
 made up, I ll take steps at once." 
 
 There was no doubting that he meant every word, and 
 Ruth, who now knew that above everything else she 
 did not want him to leave, turned to him again and laid 
 her hand on his arm. 
 
 "Fred," she said, cajolingly, "will you really promise
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 211 
 
 not to do such a thing again until until I ve finallymade 
 up my mind?" 
 
 "What s the use?" he asked quietly, but within him 
 he triumphed. 
 
 "Will you promise?" she asked, her hand still on 
 his arm. 
 
 "Yes," he answered. 
 
 "And will you stay here, and not enlist?" she asked 
 coaxingly. 
 
 He looked at her, but her head was down, he could not 
 see her face in the half light. 
 
 "Yes," he said again. 
 
 For the rest of the ride, but a few minutes, they were 
 silent, but her hand still rested on his arm.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ON the following Monday afternoon, McCabe 
 called on Hardwick. The latter had had a 
 bad day, due principally to the receipt of a 
 bill from the undertaker, which seemed enormous. 
 The trip to the college and sundry other expenses which 
 had to be paid in cash had left Hardwick without 
 money at a time when he needed a considerable amount 
 to pay pressing bills. His overdue insurance premium 
 was still unpaid and, unless he acted on this imme 
 diately, his policy would lapse. Naturally, he had been 
 borrowing the reserve as fast as it accumulated, using 
 the loans to pay new premiums, so that there was no 
 negotiable equity in it. He must have money; he must 
 get it somewhere, somehow. All day long this idea had 
 been in his mind, upsetting him, making him restless 
 and incapable of concentrating his mind on his work. 
 The strenuous effort he had put on the catalogue 
 during the preceding week had had the effect of for 
 warding that work considerably, and, had he been 
 untroubled otherwise, he would have felt hopeful about 
 the successful completion of the book within the 
 stipulated time. But his mood made every prospect 
 dark, and to-day he was sorry that he had ever under 
 taken the work. He was sure it would be a colossal 
 failure in its every aspect; the work still to be done 
 
 212
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 213 
 
 upon it seemed enormous, beyond the capability of 
 anyone living to complete within the required time. 
 
 Two of the printers had finally submitted their bids 
 for the work and the others had promised to have 
 them in during the day. The two that had been received 
 were largely in excess of the greatest estimate which 
 he had made and this was another thorn in his side. 
 Unfortunately these bids came from the printers whose 
 prices usually ran low. It looked very much as though 
 he would be compelled to go to Pemberton and tell him 
 that they would have to add at least another thousand 
 dollars to their catalogue appropriation. This came at 
 an unfavorable moment because Pemberton had given 
 orders, within the last few days, to restrict their 
 expenditures for advertising to the lowest possible 
 limit, in conformity with the wish of the War Industries 
 Board. 
 
 When McCabe s name was sent hi to him, Hardwick s 
 first impulse was to deny himself to him on the plea of 
 being too busy, but he reflected that this would but 
 postpone the inevitable and he consented to see him. 
 
 McCabe had come to talk about the catalogue. 
 After the necessary preliminaries, he asked: 
 
 "How would you like to save about eight hundred 
 dollars on this job?" 
 
 "How?" queried Hardwick, suspicious at once. 
 
 "You ve specified Snowdrift Enamel for the book, 
 haven t you?"
 
 214 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Sure," answered Hardwick, "go on." 
 
 "Well, you know what the price of it is, don t you?" 
 
 "Twelve cents." 
 
 "That s right. Snowdrift is a good paper, I ve got 
 nothing to say against it, but it s no better than a 
 number of others. Just because it s well known they 
 charge a big price for it, and they re as independent 
 as hogs on ice. No matter what you do, you can t 
 budge the price, big lot or little lot. If it s over a ton 
 and less than a carload, you ve got to pay twelve 
 cents." McCabe paused and glanced at Hardwick. He 
 was one of those men who habitually look everywhere 
 except at the person to whom they happen to be 
 speaking. It was only at intervals that McCabe looked 
 one straight in the eye, and then his roving glance 
 rested for only a moment. 
 
 "Well?" asked Hardwick. 
 
 "Well," repeated McCabe, "I ve got the refusal of a 
 fine lot of paper for your book, every bit as good as 
 Snowdrift and, if anything, a little better, and I m in 
 a position to save you eight hundred dollars on that 
 item. What do you think of that?" He looked at 
 Hardwick triumphantly. 
 
 But Hardwick was not moved to any appreciable 
 extent. 
 
 "What paper is it?" he asked, coldly. 
 
 "What s the difference?" asked McCabe, rather 
 uneasily. "If I guarantee the result on it, isn t that 
 enough?"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 215 
 
 "No," answered Hardwick. "If I opened up that 
 specification and let every printer bid on the cheapest 
 paper he thought would pass, I guess I could save more 
 than a thousand dollars." 
 
 "The hell you could," answered McCabe defiantly. 
 "You know damned well that the cheapest thing on 
 the market that would answer the purpose wouldn t 
 save you more than four hundred. You wouldn t con 
 sider Excelsior, would you?" 
 
 "I should say not," answered Hardwick emphat 
 ically. "That s rotten truck." 
 
 "Sure it is," McCabe confirmed, again confident. 
 "What I ve got is something special, I can t let you 
 know whose paper it is, I promised, but here s a sample. 
 What do you think of it?" He took a long envelope 
 from his inside pocket and extracted a folded piece of 
 glossy coated paper. He handed it to Hardwick, who 
 examined it carefully. 
 
 "It looks pretty good," commented Hardwick 
 grudgingly, and then was silent. McCabe saw that it 
 was his cue to await some further word from the other 
 and also remained silent. When, after a short pause, 
 Hardwick spoke, McCabe was much surprised. 
 
 "Say, Mac," he said in a friendly tone, quite different 
 from the grudging air which had marked his concession 
 of the apparently acceptable quality of McCabe s 
 sample, "did you ever do anything about that advertis 
 ing copy you wanted me to write for you?" Hardwick s
 
 216 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 voice was very low, his manner confidential. McCabe 
 was delighted, but his manner in replying gave no 
 indication of his inward emotion. 
 
 "Why, no," he said, "I ve brought the stuff with me. 
 I wanted to talk to you about it." 
 
 "I ve been thinking over the matter," said Hardwick, 
 slowly, endeavoring to affect an off-hand manner which 
 would hide his uneasy conscience, "and I think I can 
 handle it for you next Sunday and, if there s time 
 enough, every Sunday until the work is finished." 
 
 "There s no great hurry. If you could give me the 
 first part of it next Monday, I could let you have four 
 or five weeks to finish it. Do you want to see it now?" 
 
 "No," answered Hardwick hastily. "There s no use 
 publishing the affair, is there?" 
 
 "Certainly not," assented the other. "When can I 
 see you about it?" 
 
 "Meet me at O Neill s at five-thirty. I ll buy you a 
 drink." 
 
 "You re on," said McCabe, with a smile. 
 
 "This coated looks pretty good," said Hardwick. 
 "Is this a sample of the actual lot?" 
 
 "Yes, it s almost the exact size we want. We re 
 in great luck to run into it." He spoke as though the 
 order had actually been placed with him. Hardwick 
 noted it and was moved to call his attention to the fact 
 that it wasn t at all likely that McCabe would succeed 
 in getting the business, but he could not bring himself
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 217 
 
 to talk about it now. There was plenty of time for that, 
 he told himself. 
 
 "Say, Mac," he said instead, "you ll have to get 
 your bid in if you want it considered. They ll all be in 
 to-day and I expect the job will be let to-morrow." 
 
 "Will the first thing to-morrow morning do?" 
 
 "I ought to have it to-day, but if you ll promise to 
 have it here to-morrow morning before ten, I ll wait for 
 you. But no longer." 
 
 "All right. Have you all your bids?" 
 
 "All but two, and they re promised for this afternoon 
 sure." 
 
 Just then the telephone rang, and Hardwick answered. 
 
 "Tell him I ll see him in a minute," he said, and, 
 hanging up the receiver, turned to McCabe. 
 
 "That s Johnny Albright with his now." 
 
 "I ll be going," said McCabe, rising. "See you at 
 O Neill s at five-thirty." 
 
 "All right. So long," answered Hardwick and his 
 visitor departed. 
 
 Over their drink, which they took in an alcove which 
 screened them from general observation, McCabe 
 went over the details of the matter which he wished 
 Hardwick to work up for him. When he had finished, 
 the latter said: 
 
 "There s nothing very hard about that. I thought it 
 would be more of a job." He was disappointed. This 
 could not be worth more than a hundred dollars at the
 
 218 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 most, and he felt that three hundred was the smallest 
 amount that would help him out of his present difficulty. 
 
 "This is only the beginning," said McCabe, who had 
 divined Hardwick s disappointment. "There ll be a 
 lot more." 
 
 "Oh!" said Hardwick, relieved, and was silent. He 
 was wondering whether he might ask for an advance 
 payment. But McCabe anticipated him. 
 
 "Would you like something on account?" he asked. 
 
 "I could use a little money right now," said Hardwick, 
 as though it had just occurred to him. 
 
 "How much would you like?" 
 
 Hardwick wished he could ask for five hundred 
 dollars but did not dare. Necessity, however, compelled 
 him to make it three hundred, although he felt that it 
 was out of all proportion to the value of the work now 
 in hand. 
 
 "Three hundred," repeated McCabe. "That ll be all 
 right." He was surprised at the amount, but pleased as 
 well. He knew that he could get it all back indirectly. 
 "I haven t that much on me now," he continued, "will 
 to-morrow do?" 
 
 "Sure, "answered Hardwick. He was becoming exceed 
 ingly uncomfortable, although he told himself that this 
 was a perfectly legitimate transaction. "Take lunch 
 with me to-morrow at Hunter s. I ll meet you at twelve- 
 thirty." 
 
 "All right. Twelve-thirty."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 219 
 
 A short silence ensued. 
 
 "Did you get all of your bids in?" asked McCabe. 
 
 "Yes, the last one came just before I left the office." 
 
 "How do they run, pretty high?" 
 
 "I should say so, much higher than I expected. You re 
 going to let me have yours by ten to-morrow at the 
 latest, aren t you?" 
 
 "Sure, I ve got it all figured out. I only want to go 
 over it for safety." 
 
 "How much is it?" asked Hardwick. He hoped it 
 would be so high that it would be out of the question to 
 consider it. It would be very satisfactory to be able to 
 go to McCabe and tell him that he had done everything 
 he could to have the order go to him, but his price made 
 it impossible. As matters now stood between them, he 
 did not see how he could fail to consider his bid seriously 
 if it were low enough. 
 
 McCabe had made up his mind to have this order. 
 There was no good reason why he should have been so 
 bent upon it, in fact, he would have had difficulty in 
 explaining his great desire for it, but, nevertheless, the 
 desire and the determination were there. He had esti 
 mated the job as worth about ninety-five hundred 
 dollars, although he would have been quite willing to 
 accept the order at nine thousand, reckoning upon add 
 ing a sufficient amount of extras to cover this difference 
 and any advance he might make to Hardwick ostensibly 
 to pay for the writing of advertising copy which he had
 
 220 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 ordered from him. At the same time, he did not wish to 
 accept the order at ninety-five if there was a possibility 
 of getting more. McCabe was strictly an opportunist; he 
 sold his printing for what he could get for it, taking 
 orders sometimes at ridiculously low prices compared 
 to those of his competitors. But, in the long run, he did 
 very well. He had no scruples to prevent him from mak 
 ing any possible substitution of materials, or any reduc 
 tion in the quality and amount of labor. Printing is 
 bought in the main by people who do not understand it, 
 and the opportunity for practices such as have just 
 been described is very great. In spite of this fact, very 
 few printers choose this dubious road to wealth if, in 
 fact, any printer ever chooses any road to wealth. It is 
 a notoriously poor business from the standpoint of profit. 
 
 When Hardwick asked McCabe what his price was, 
 the latter answered promptly: 
 
 "It comes to about thirteen thousand dollars." 
 
 His ruse was entirely successful. 
 
 "Thirteen thousand dollars!" repeated Hardwick In 
 great surprise. "You must have made a mistake in your 
 figures." 
 
 "I don t think so," answered McCabe, seriously. 
 "I ve gone over it very carefully." 
 
 "You must have made a buck somewhere. You re 
 nearly three thousand dollars high." 
 
 "I can t see it," said McCabe slowly. "I made that 
 estimate myself and I went over every item twice. I m
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 221 
 
 sure there s no error in it. Maybe your low man made 
 the mistake. Aren t your other bids about the same 
 as mine?" 
 
 "No," said Hardwick. "Of course I can t tell you the 
 bids, but there isn t five hundred dollars between the 
 highest and lowest." As the bids ran from ten thousand 
 two hundred to ten thousand six hundred, he was well 
 within the truth. 
 
 McCabe now had the facts he wanted. He suspected 
 that it would be necessary for him to quote a price well 
 under the others, as he knew that his reputation with 
 the Prescott Company was not very good. He had done 
 some work for them over a year ago and had had con 
 siderable trouble in collecting his bill for extras. He 
 decided to quote nine thousand and two hundred, but 
 said as he got up to go: 
 
 "Well, Harry, I ll go over the figures again to-morrow 
 morning before I send them in and make sure that I 
 haven t made any mistakes. I can t see how I could have 
 made any, I certainly was very careful."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 McCABE was as good as his promise and pre 
 sented his bid for the printing of the catalogue 
 at ten o clock the next morning. Hardwick 
 was surprised, when he read it, to find that the price 
 quoted was ninety-two hundred dollars. He looked 
 questioningly at McCabe, who sat beside his desk, 
 smiling. 
 
 "You re wondering at the difference, aren t you?" 
 said McCabe. 
 
 Hardwick still looked at him questioningly, so he 
 continued: 
 
 "The silliest mistakes you ever saw. Two of them, one 
 in addition and the other in multiplication. It s a good 
 thing none of my clerks made that estimate. He d be 
 without a job. That s all I ve got to say." 
 
 Hardwick s suspicions were aroused. Just what was 
 McCabe driving at? he wondered; but none of his 
 suspicion showed in the tone in which he said: 
 
 "Well, Mac, much obliged. I ll let you know how it 
 comes out." 
 
 "All right," answered McCabe, and left. He did not 
 think it necessary to go into any argument on the 
 subject. He was willing to await their interview at 
 Hunter s at twelve-thirty. 
 
 After he had gone, Hardwick called Ruth and 
 222
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 223 
 
 handed her McCabe s proposal. She read through it 
 quickly, looking for the price. When she found it, she 
 read it out loud: 
 
 "Ninety-two hundred dollars. That s a very low 
 price compared to the others." 
 
 "Yes," assented Hardwick. "Just how do the others 
 run?" 
 
 "I ll get them," she answered, and went to her desk. 
 She was back in a moment and read them off to him. 
 
 "Ten thousand six hundred, ten thousand four 
 hundred and fifty, ten thousand two hundred and 
 fifty and ten thousand two hundred. He s a whole 
 thousand dollars under the lowest." 
 
 "Looks like his order," said Hardwick. He made an 
 effort to appear nonchalant, but he was really much 
 excited. 
 
 "I don t think we can afford to do business with Mr. 
 McCabe," said Ruth quietly. 
 
 "Why not?" he asked. 
 
 "He doesn t stand very well hi this establishment. 
 We had a rather disagreeable experience with him on 
 the last job he did for us." 
 
 "What was that?" he asked. "Won t you sit down?" 
 he continued as he saw their interview promised to be 
 longer than he had expected. She did so, still holding 
 all of the bids in her hand. 
 
 "I don t remember the exact figures," she said, "but 
 Mr. McCabe quoted a low price on a job to us and we
 
 224 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 gave him the order. When his bill came in, he over 
 charged us frightfully for a lot of extras, and, by the 
 time we settled the matter, his price was actually more 
 than the highest bid we had received in the first place." 
 
 "Extras," said Hardwick, "what kind of extras?" 
 
 "Oh! all kinds. Alterations and changes, lots of them. 
 There was an over-run too, on which he charged the full 
 rate. I don t remember the exact details, but I know 
 that Mr. McNair said he would never give him another 
 order. The work wasn t very well done, either." 
 
 She paused and looked at Hardwick. He was in a 
 quandary. He was well acquainted with McCabe s 
 tactics, having had considerable experience with him 
 in the past. He knew that McCabe s price was lower 
 because of the substitution of paper. It was fairly clear 
 to him that the order should go to one of the other 
 bidders; the slight variation between the higher bids 
 permitted the choice of any one of them. But he remem 
 bered that he was to meet McCabe at noon and that 
 he was to receive the advance of three hundred dollars 
 for the work he was to do for him. Oh! If only he were 
 able to get along without that money. He wondered 
 whether McCabe would advance it even though his 
 bid were not accepted. He sat silent, tapping rhyth 
 mically on his]desk with the end of his pencil. Ruth also 
 was silent, and, as he did not speak, she began to 
 re-read McCabe s proposal, this time carefully. 
 
 "Did you notice this?" she said suddenly, looking up.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 225 
 
 "What?" asked Hardwick. 
 
 "It says: To be printed on Snowdrift Enamel or 
 paper of equal quality/ That won t do, will it?" 
 
 "Scarcely," answered Hardwick, "unless, of course, 
 we were shown that the other paper was equal in every 
 respect." 
 
 "I wouldn t trust Mr. McCabe to make any sub 
 stitution of something equally as good if he wasn t 
 watched." 
 
 "You seem to have it in for McCabe," said Hardwick, 
 smiling. 
 
 "No, I haven t. Not personally, of course. I m only 
 judging from our experience with him." 
 
 "Well, if McCabe gets this order, and it looks as 
 though he ought to have it, I ll guarantee that there 
 won t be any substitution of inferior material, and 
 that there won t be any extras. You know I ve been 
 in the printing business myself and I m on to all of 
 the tricks of the trade." 
 
 "Don t you think," asked Ruth, "that we ought to 
 give the other bidders a chance to quote the same way?" 
 
 "If there was more time, yes," answered Hardwick, 
 "but we haven t a moment to lose. I can t afford to 
 put another minute in on this thing. I ll send for 
 McCabe this afternoon and put it squarely up to him. 
 I ll insist on his paying a big penalty for delay. I ll 
 make him submit every form before he prints it. I can 
 handle him all right and I want to save that thousand."
 
 226 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Very well," said Ruth. She felt that Hardwick had 
 made up his mind and that further protest would be not 
 only useless, but quite outside of her authority. 
 
 McCabe was awaiting Hardwick at the restaurant 
 when the latter entered promptly at the appointed time. 
 They sat down together and went through the form of 
 general conversation for a while, each curiously under 
 the necessity of masking his real interest, the one in 
 the prospective advance and the other in the order he 
 wanted. 
 
 When the general conversation had persisted suffi 
 ciently to satisfy their consciences in this respect, 
 McCabe asked: 
 
 "Did you come to any decision about the catalogue?" 
 
 "Not altogether, but it looks like your order." 
 
 McCabe thrilled with triumph. "That s good news," 
 he said. 
 
 "Come over this afternoon about four o clock and 
 I ll talk it over with you." 
 
 "All right," said McCabe. "By the way," he went on, 
 "I ve brought the three hundred." He drew a long 
 envelope from his inside pocket and passed it to Hard 
 wick, whojmt it in his own pocket without examination. 
 
 "Do you want a receipt?" he asked. 
 
 "Certainly not, Harry. If I couldn t trust you, I d 
 give up." 
 
 In spite of the obviousness of this remark, Hardwick 
 could not help feeling flattered. He told himself that
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 227 
 
 McCabe wasn t a bad fellow after all, and he would 
 certainly get the worth of his money in the quality 
 of the copy he would receive. This was on the surface 
 of his mind, but within, the unethical quality of the 
 transaction persisted in making itself felt. Not strongly, 
 however, and as Hardwick dwelt upon the excellence 
 of the work he would do for McCabe, it grew weaker 
 and weaker, but did not altogether disappear. 
 
 They hurried through their lunch after this and then 
 Hardwick went to his bank on the way back to the office 
 and deposited the money which he had received. At 
 the office he made out checks for some of the most 
 pressing of his obligations, after which he put the matter 
 out of his mind and busied himself on the catalogue. He 
 made fine progress, and, when McCabe arrived, promptly 
 at four o clock, he was in an excellent humor. 
 
 McCabe agreed willingly to every condition which 
 Hardwick put upon him and at five o clock departed 
 with the signed order. His last words were: 
 
 "Well, Harry, all I ve got to say is that I ll give you 
 a job you ll be proud of." 
 
 Hardwick now felt entirely justified in his action. 
 His natural optimism asserted itself; all difficulties 
 vanished and he saw the triumph that would be his 
 when the book appeared. It all looked so easy to him 
 to-day that he decided to go home to dinner. His 
 original intention had been to spend the evening at 
 the office.
 
 228 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 He called his house on the telephone and recognized 
 Marian s voice. 
 
 "Is mother home?" he asked. 
 
 "No, she s been out all day." 
 
 "Well, when she comes in, tell her I ve changed my 
 mind about working to-night, and I m coming home to 
 dinner. Tell her it doesn t make any difference what 
 I get, anything will do." 
 
 He arrived home before Mrs. Hardwick. She came 
 in at seven o clock, her usual benignity greatly empha 
 sized. She was dressed in complete mourning, a new 
 gown which already showed distinct signs of its owner s 
 inattention. It was a ready-made affair which, though 
 expensive, did not look so, for it did not fit, and contrary 
 to the usual effect of black dresses, it accentuated rather 
 than suppressed the magnitude of the proportions of 
 its wearer. 
 
 "Why, Henry, my dear," she said, effusively, "this 
 is a most agreeable surprise. I m very glad, for I really 
 have some very important news for you." 
 
 Hardwick s good humor had vanished when he 
 entered his home. It brought his grief to the fore. In the 
 important business of the day, it had been forced out 
 of his mind. He had been cheered somewhat by his 
 talk with Marian while they were awaiting Mrs. 
 Hardwick, but, to-day, Marian herself seemed in lower 
 spirits than usual, and her evidence of affection for him, 
 always manifest, lacked its usual liveliness, while Mrs.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 229 
 
 Hardwick s obvious self-satisfaction distinctly irritated 
 him. 
 
 They ate their dinner, a wretched affair because of 
 the execrable cookery, to the accompaniment of Mrs. 
 Hardwick s voice. She talked almost unceasingly. 
 
 "This morning," she began, "Marian s remark of the 
 other evening came into my mind. Why not, I asked 
 myself, put such talent as I may possess hi the direction 
 of clear expression to account? The longer I thought of 
 the matter, the more interested I became. Finally, I 
 decided to discuss the matter with Mrs. Hutchinson and 
 called her on the telephone. She asked me to come over 
 to her house at once and agreed to send her car for me. 
 I went over as soon as I was dressed and we had a long 
 talk on the subject. I remained at her house for 
 luncheon. 
 
 "After luncheon we continued our talk, discussing 
 various phases of the subject. At last, an idea came to 
 me which Mrs. Hutchinson pronounced as really 
 brilliant when I communicated it to her. It was no 
 more than the proposal to deliver a series of talks on 
 current topics. As we went over the matter, we became 
 more and more interested, and, finally, we decided that 
 it was exactly the thing to do. We agreed that there 
 was a large public which would welcome and support 
 such an effort and that, particularly now, with the 
 whole world at war, with difficult questions of all lands 
 confronting the ablest statesmen, this public would be
 
 230 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 happy to have the opportunity to have the true inward 
 ness of the world s happenings explained to them. Mrs. 
 Hutchinson said she knew of no one more capable in 
 this respect than myself and, without undue vanity, I 
 believe I am rather well qualified. We at once set 
 about the execution of the project and " 
 
 "You don t mean to say," cried Hardwick, amazed 
 and mortified as well, "that you are willing to undertake 
 such a thing now, with this sorrow upon us." 
 
 "Why not?" calmly asked Mrs. Hardwick. "Should I 
 hide my head because of our misfortune? Should I 
 bewail my fate? No, a thousand times no. I thank the 
 Lord I have the strength to do my duty as I see it. My 
 sorrow is none the less on that account and anyone who 
 would question it would be beneath contempt." As she 
 spoke her voice was raised and, at the end, she almost 
 shouted. 
 
 Hardwick did not answer. It was impossible, unnat 
 ural, but he had no word to offer that seemed appro 
 priate. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick ate in silence for a little while and 
 then resumed her story. 
 
 "We decided that it would scarcely do to begin before 
 the first of the year, and that it would take all of the 
 intervening time to secure a sufficient number of 
 subscriptions. We selected Thursday afternoon as a 
 most convenient time and arranged for sixteen talks. 
 This would take us to the end of April, which we thought
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 231 
 
 long enough." She paused and looked at her husband 
 for approval. But she found nothing in his expression 
 that even remotely resembled it. 
 
 "Do you mean that you are actually going on with 
 this thing?" he asked, almost sternly. 
 
 "I certainly do," she answered with firmness. 
 
 "And are you going to undertake to instruct these 
 people, that is if you can find any who will be willing 
 to come, as to what is going on in the world?" 
 
 "Precisely that," replied Mrs. Hardwick with great 
 emphasis. 
 
 "And what are you going to tell them, pray?" he 
 asked scornfully. 
 
 "Your tone, my dear Henry," said his wife with her 
 cackle in evidence, "is not exactly complimentary." 
 She was making a great effort to control herself and 
 spoke very slowly. "Your tone is scarcely calculated 
 to invite further discussion of this matter with you. 
 Your petulance amazes me, I do not say disappoints 
 me/ for I am used to it and also to your rather absurd 
 view of most things. However, I am going to tell you 
 what I would say were I to discuss to-day s current 
 topics. For instance, the situation in Russia is most 
 peculiar. The flight of Kerensky and the foundation of 
 a government by Lenine induces a questioning attitude 
 on the part of the rest of the world. It is yet too early 
 to decide definitely as to the causes which have brought 
 about this new revolution. I may state, however, that
 
 232 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 it appears to me no more than a local insurrection in 
 the capital of Russia which will undoubtedly lack 
 support hi the provinces where the great bulk of the 
 population Is found." She paused and again looked for 
 approval, and again was disappointed. 
 
 "They can read all of that in the newspapers," he 
 said rather contemptuously, "if they re interested." 
 
 "Ah!" cried Mrs. Hardwick, "that s just it. They 
 won t read it hi the newspapers because they wouldn t 
 understand It If they did. It requires explanation. And 
 with explanation, the sort of insight which I flatter 
 myself I shall be able to furnish, it will become not 
 merely interesting but positively absorbing. Consider 
 President Wilson s wishes with reference to the labor 
 situation. Do you suppose that many women read 
 that sort of an article? I should say, not one hi a 
 hundred " 
 
 "Did you read It?" interrupted Hardwick. 
 
 "Certainly not," answered his wife earnestly. 
 
 "Well, what do you know about it then?" he asked 
 triumphantly. 
 
 "Nothing at all," replied Mrs. Hardwick serenely, 
 "except what was contained in the headline. That 
 exactly proves my contention. If I, who may claim at 
 least an ordinary interest hi what is going on in the 
 world; if I, therefore, am not led to read such an article, 
 what do you suppose is the likelihood that it will be 
 read by Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Brown or Mrs. Robinson?
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 233 
 
 But these same women will seize the opportunity to 
 have me tell them about it." Mrs. Hard wick was so 
 pleased with her demonstration that all traces of her 
 momentary sarcastic attitude departed and she beamed 
 upon her spouse. 
 
 "Oh! Well," said he, "what s the use of our talking 
 about it. You ll never be able to put it over." 
 
 " Put it over ," quoted Mrs. Hardwick. "Henry, 
 my dear, I do wish you would not use these common 
 expressions, particularly in Marian s hearing. She 
 already shows a propensity, singular in a child of mine, 
 to employ vulgarisms such as these, and she should, 
 therefore, be shown a better example. As to my ability 
 to make a success of the project, you need have no 
 fears, I shall see to that. The only question is just how 
 to limit the attendance. Mrs. Hutchinson and I dis 
 cussed this aspect of the affair very seriously and we 
 came finally to the conclusion to limit the attendance 
 to one thousand " 
 
 "One thousand!" cried Hardwick. "You must be 
 crazy!" 
 
 But Mrs. Hardwick paid no attention to his interrup 
 tion and went on calmly. 
 
 "We decided to rent Wilberforce Hall, which seats 
 exactly nine hundred and ninety-six hi the auditorium. 
 We have not actually rented the hall for the sixteen 
 Thursdays from January to April inclusive, but we 
 have the refusal of nearly all of them until to-morrow.
 
 234 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Unfortunately, two Thursday afternoons, one in 
 January and one in February, have already been 
 engaged, and, if it is not possible to secure them, we 
 shall have to select some other day in those weeks." 
 
 Hardwick was more and more amazed. 
 
 "You rented Wilberforce Hall for sixteen after 
 noons!" he cried. "Do you know what that will cost?" 
 
 "Certainly," answered Mrs. Hardwick, as one would 
 reply to a sick child, "I have had no actual business 
 experience, but may lay claim to some knowledge of 
 the elements. The rent for the sixteen afternoons will 
 be exactly twelve hundred dollars. I believe that 
 sixteen times seventy-five is twelve hundred." 
 
 "Well, there s one good thing," said Hardwick, 
 bitterly, "if they trust you, they won t be able to 
 collect the money from either of us." 
 
 "Have no fear on that score, my dear Henry, no one 
 will come to you for any of that money. You will be 
 asked neither for money nor advice." Mrs. Hardwick 
 delivered herself of this with a magnificent gesture, 
 and, rising from the table, went out into the kitchen.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 EVELYN BURCHARD, when she married L. 
 Percival Sedley In 1897, was a young girl 
 who had been brought up in the conventional 
 manner in vogue at that period with families of long 
 established standing and of considerable wealth. She 
 had no ideals of any consequence, no standards that 
 were not utterly commonplace. Her education had been 
 accomplished without developing any real taste for 
 any of the fine arts. Her beauty and a pleasing manner 
 made her popular and her marriage to a man whom 
 both heredity and circumstance had endowed with 
 great wealth had opened to her a great social career. 
 She had no children and was therefore entirely free to 
 devote herself continuously to "society," as it is called. 
 For many years, the ceaseless round among the same 
 set of people, varied by occasional trips to Europe, 
 completely satisfied her. But, when she was about 
 thirty-five, hi 1912, to be exact, she found that she no 
 longer cared to participate in what passed among her 
 set for entertainment. Nor did she enjoy the fact that 
 her maturity compelled her to take second place with 
 respect to younger women. Besides, she was tired of 
 it. She wanted something new and she found it in a 
 number of enterprises of a public nature. Her great 
 wealth and definite social position procured for her a 
 
 235
 
 236 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 prominent place in any undertaking with which she 
 associated herself. She also found pleasure in patronizing 
 the arts, and, although she really knew nothing of any 
 of them, had no trouble in drawing to her a large 
 number of people, either active or merely interested in 
 painting, music or literature. 
 
 It was through the last of these that she had made the 
 acquaintance of Mrs. Hardwick. That enterprising 
 lady had not been slow to take advantage of her 
 opportunity to meet a woman of such prominence as 
 Mrs. Sedley, and had once succeeded in having her call 
 at the Hardwick house. That was the occasion on 
 which the visiting card had been secured, the card that, 
 apparently by mere accident, always topped the 
 collection on Mrs. Hardwick s tray. 
 
 Through their association in the same Red Cross 
 Auxiliary, Mrs. Hardwick had the chance, as she 
 thought, to improve their acquaintance and had 
 actually succeeded to the point where Mrs. Sedley had 
 felt impelled to pay a visit of condolence. Mrs. Sedley 
 was not particularly drawn to Mrs. Hardwick, but, 
 at the same time, was much impressed by that lady s 
 volubility hi the exposition of her literary opinions. 
 Knowing practically nothing of literature herself, she 
 looked upon Mrs. Hardwick as a woman of great 
 endowments in this art and was ready to place as high 
 a valuation upon her erudition as that lady herself. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick counted upon Mrs. Sedley for
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 237 
 
 endorsement of her project to deliver her current topics 
 talks. Therefore, on Wednesday morning, immediately 
 following her discussion of the matter with her husband, 
 she called Mrs. Sedley on the telephone and obtained 
 permission to pay her a visit to discuss a matter of 
 great importance. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick arrived at the Sedley house at eleven 
 o clock and had but a few minutes to wait before she 
 was received by Mrs. Sedley. 
 
 She looked about her after the servant left her. 
 Never, she thought, had she been in so beautiful a 
 house. What was it, she wondered, that gave It so 
 restful an air that seemed to be in perfect keeping with 
 the quiet which hung over the house, into which, at 
 intervals, came the noises from the street, muffled as 
 though they had come from a great distance. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick noted details, a chair here, a table 
 there, and in separate details did she seek the secret 
 of the charm of the room. It eluded her, however, and 
 her mind was already bent on other things when she 
 heard a step on the stair and, in a moment, her hostess 
 had greeted her. 
 
 "Dear Mrs. Sedley," she said, unctuously, as soon as 
 the customary greetings were over, "I have come to 
 enlist your help in a project which I am sure you will 
 instantly pronounce as possessing great possibilities for 
 public benefit. You have met my friend, Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son, I believe; Mrs. Harrod Hutchinson, a woman of
 
 238 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 great discrimination in literary matters. I have dis 
 cussed my plans with her and have been encouraged to 
 believe that what, at first, was a most modest under 
 taking, might be turned to large account by the assist 
 ance of your commanding position in the community, 
 a position, I may say, due not to your wealth and 
 elevated social standing, but entirely to a personality 
 in which great charm and aesthetic judgment vie for 
 supremacy." Mrs. Hardwick paused, and, as usual, 
 devoted the breathing spell to the observation of the 
 effect of her words upon the listener. 
 
 With Mrs. Sedley, she had struck exactly the right 
 note. Her wealth and social position were an old story, 
 but her recent standing, that of a recognized patron of 
 the arts, was newer and, therefore, not so well estab 
 lished in her own mind as the certainty of her wealth 
 and social position. Confirmation of it from others, there 
 fore, was sweet music in her ears. 
 
 "What is your project, Mrs. Hardwick?" asked Mrs. 
 Sedley with an appearance of great interest. 
 
 "The world war and the great upheaval consequent 
 thereto are making history at unparalleled speed. Day 
 after day, new problems arise, new movements are 
 perceived, and the mind of the ordinary man, nay, even 
 the cultured man or woman, is bewildered in the 
 attempt to follow the progress of events. But a few days 
 ago we were watching the advance of the Germans into 
 Italy with excitement and apprehension. Last week
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 239 
 
 the fall of the Kerensky government claimed our 
 attention and set us to wonder. To-day we are face to 
 face with a labor movement in our own country of 
 such proportions that the President has deemed it 
 necessary to take a hand. All of this vast moving 
 panorama is confusing to us unless it is co-ordinated 
 and correlated by someone who has the insight to 
 delve into the mystery and the ability to set clearly 
 before us the results of the inquiry. 
 
 "I have given this matter much earnest thought and 
 have come to the conclusion, I hope I am not overrating 
 myself, that I can bring to many people, who are 
 without either the opportunity or the ability to do it 
 for themselves, an understanding of these matters 
 which, with a minimum of effort and expense on their 
 part, will make the whole concatenation of events 
 clear to them." Again Mrs. Hardwick paused and 
 noted that she had Mrs. Sedley s complete attention. 
 
 "Please go on, Mrs. Hardwick," said she, "this is 
 most interesting." 
 
 "It is my intention," resumed that lady, "to give a 
 series of sixteen talks on current topics, at weekly 
 intervals, on Thursdays, beginning January third. In 
 these talks I shall present the important happenings 
 of the previous week, with an interpretation of them 
 which will make them clear to every auditor. It is 
 my purpose " 
 
 "Oh! That will be splendid," cried Mrs. Sedley, 
 enthusiastically.
 
 240 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I was sure you would approve/ said Mrs. Hardwick, 
 "and I am very happy that I was not mistaken, for I 
 count upon your help to assure the success of the 
 series." 
 
 "I ll be delighted to assist you. What can I do?" 
 
 "I want you to be the first of my patronesses, if 
 you will be so kind." 
 
 "Certainly. Whom else will you have?" 
 
 "I should like Mrs. Ingham, Mrs. Kennedy Brown, 
 Mrs. Lorimer " and Mrs. Hardwick went on to name 
 about twenty-five women, all of them prominent in 
 society, not one of whom, however, she had met. 
 
 "A splendid list, Mrs. Hardwick," said her hostess. 
 "Have you spoken to any of them?" 
 
 "Not yet. In fact, I felt that the project was of such 
 importance to the community that I did not care to 
 go on with it until I had secured your approval and 
 promise of patronage. Now that you have so kindly 
 given me both of these, I am going to count upon your 
 well-known public spirit for co-operation in securing 
 the rest of the patronesses." 
 
 "But how?" queried Mrs. Sedley. She was wondering 
 just what Mrs. Hardwick would demand of her and 
 became somewhat less cordial. Mrs. Hardwick, however, 
 paid no attention to the change in Mrs. Sedley s 
 demeanor and went on sweetly: 
 
 "I haven t had the pleasure of meeting some of these 
 ladies personally. They do not know who I am and for
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 241 
 
 me to apply to them directly without your support 
 and approval would entail much delay and might 
 defeat the great object which I have in view, which is 
 to reach the largest possible number of people." Mrs. 
 Hardwick put on what was intended to be a most 
 engaging smile. 
 
 "But what do you want me to do?" asked Mrs. 
 Sedley, anxiously. 
 
 "I should like you to invite these ladies to meet at 
 your house, and, so to speak, organize the patronage 
 of my talks. I would be here, and would take charge 
 of everything; you would have to give yourself no 
 concern whatever. Of course, it would be most appro 
 priate if you were to make a little address in which you 
 might state your enthusiastic interest in the project." 
 
 Mrs. Sedley was not sure she liked the programme 
 which her guest had in view. However, she saw no 
 great trouble in it for herself and she therefore gave her 
 assent. 
 
 "Very well, Mrs. Hardwick," she said, "when would 
 you suggest that we hold the meeting?" 
 
 "Let me see, this is Wednesday. Would next Wednes 
 day afternoon suit you?" 
 
 "Very well. In what form would you suggest we 
 make the invitation?" 
 
 "I have thought of that. Since you have been good 
 enough to stand as sponsor for the undertaking, we 
 must take no chance of failure. It has therefore appeared
 
 242 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 to me that the best way in which to assure a full attend 
 ance at this meeting will be for you to give me a letter 
 of introduction to each of these ladies in a form which 
 I have already composed, and which will contain an 
 invitation to attend the meeting and become one of the 
 patronesses." 
 
 Mrs. Sedley was dubious and would have been glad 
 to withdraw. Perhaps Mrs. Hardwick suspected this, 
 for she went on hastily. 
 
 "It will be a matter of a couple hours work for your 
 secretary. I shall submit the form of the letter to you 
 for your approval, of which I am quite sure, and then, 
 if you will be good enough to have her set to work on 
 them immediately, I can get them from her this 
 afternoon and begin at once, presenting them hi person 
 to the ladies to whom they are addressed." 
 
 "Have you the letter already written?" asked Mrs. 
 Sedley. 
 
 "Yes, I have it here. I ll show it to you directly. 
 But first, I must speak to you about a matter concerning 
 which I feel a most natural delicacy. You need not be 
 told that there will be considerable expense attached 
 to the giving of these talks on the large scale which we 
 have hi mind. I hope I have not judged incorrectly in 
 presuming that you would make, may I say, a liberal 
 subscription for tickets." Mrs. Hardwick paused and 
 fixed her gaze on Mrs. Sedley. Instinctively, she knew 
 that until the latter had answered she must be silent 
 and she was.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 243 
 
 Mrs. Sedley took but a moment. She might have 
 taken longer were it not that silence under Mrs. Hard- 
 wick s direct gaze was most uncomfortable. 
 
 "Why, certainly, Mrs. Hardwick," she said, rather 
 nervously. "What do you expect of me?" 
 
 "I don t suppose It will seem very much to you," 
 said Mrs. Hardwick in a deprecatory manner. "There 
 are to be sixteen talks, and at one dollar each, the 
 price for all would be sixteen dollars. I have, however, 
 decided to ask but fifteen for the course. I presumed 
 that you would be willing to subscribe for six course 
 tickets." Again her gaze was fixed on Mrs. Sedley. 
 
 Fortunately for Mrs. Hardwick, ninety dollars was 
 not much for Mrs. Sedley to spend for anything, and, 
 while that lady thought it rather steep, she was unable 
 under that fixed look of definite expectation to do 
 anything but acquiesce. 
 
 "Oh! That will be quite satisfactory, Mrs. Hard 
 wick," she said. 
 
 "Thank you very much. I knew your public spirit 
 and generosity would not fail, and to prove that there 
 is no flattery in this, let me show you the letter I have 
 composed." Mrs. Hardwick drew a letter from her 
 pocket with great care. The care was undertaken to 
 assure her bringing forth the copy which she had 
 prepared which stated that Mrs. Sedley had subscribed 
 to six course tickets, and to avoid showing those which 
 stated respectively four and two.
 
 244 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 She handed the letter to Mrs. Sedley, who read: 
 
 Dear Mrs. Blank: 
 
 This will introduce to you Mrs. Henry 
 Wallace Hardwick, with whom I have 
 been acquainted for a number of years. 
 Mrs. Hardwick is to give a series of talks 
 on current topics, on Thursday afternoons 
 beginning January third, and I wish to 
 enlist your interest in behalf of theproject. 
 
 From what I know of Mrs. Hardwick s 
 ability and attainments, she is singularly 
 well fitted to undertake the work. Con 
 sequently I have consented to act as pa 
 troness, and as a mark of my interest have 
 subscribed to six course tickets. 
 
 May I add my request to that of Mrs. 
 Hardwick to the effect that you will also 
 become a patroness and in that capacity 
 attend a meeting at my house on next 
 Wednesday afternoon at four o clock? 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick will explain the matter 
 to you in full detail. 
 
 Mrs. Sedley read the letter carefully. "It seems very 
 business-like," she said doubtfully. 
 
 "I tried to make it so. It appears to me that that is 
 the correct basis. I take it for granted that the letter 
 is satisfactory to you and that you will have your 
 secretary set to work at them at once. I shall call for 
 them as soon as they are ready." 
 
 "Very well, Mrs. Hardwick," answered Mrs. Sedley.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 245 
 
 tf 
 
 "But I cannot sign them until late this afternoon. I 
 am going out almost immediately and will not return 
 until nearly dinner time." Mrs. Sedley rose, which Mrs. 
 Hardwick judged correctly was a sign of dismissal, and 
 she also rose. 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Sedley," she said, "I cannot suffi 
 ciently express my delight in your whole-hearted 
 co-operation. I shall endeavor to show my appreciation 
 by making this course of talks, to which you have been 
 good enough to lend your support, a great success, one 
 that will, if possible, add to your already great reputa 
 tion as the possessor of a fine public spirit. Good morn 
 ing. I shall call for the letters at seven this evening. 
 Will you give me your secretary s name?" 
 
 "Miss Hatch," answered Mrs. Sedley. "Good morn 
 ing and good luck." 
 
 "Thank you ever so much, dear Mrs. Sedley. Good 
 morning." And Mrs. Hardwick went down the street 
 elated.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 DIRECTLY after lunch on that same day 
 Mrs. Hardwick sought her friend Mrs. 
 Hutchinson. She called her on the telephone 
 and made an appointment to visit her immediately. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson sent her car for her and in a very few 
 minutes the two ladies were hi earnest conclave. 
 
 "My dear," said Mrs. Hardwick, "we shall have at 
 least twenty patronesses selected from the most 
 exclusive people hi the city. I have no doubt that none 
 of them will feel satisfied to do less in the way of 
 subscription than Mrs. Sedley. That will mean, at 
 ninety dollars each, nearly two thousand dollars. We 
 may be sure of the success of the undertaking, certainly 
 from the financial aspect. Now, we must go at once 
 and engage the hall." 
 
 The prospect seemed almost too good to Mrs. Hutch 
 inson. She was Inclined to be cautious, and urged delay. 
 "There may be disappointments, you know," she said. 
 
 "Impossible," said Mrs. Hardwick, and much more 
 which showed such complete confidence, such utter 
 determination that Mrs. Hutchinson was literally 
 carried off her feet and, in a few minutes, was taken 
 into town by Mrs. Hardwick hi her own car. 
 
 At the office of the manager of Wilberforce Hall, 
 Mrs. Hardwick did all of the talking. She was hi her 
 
 246
 
 JTHE HAPPY WOMAN 247 
 
 element, for the manager was an unassuming little man, 
 one of the sort who might always be counted upon for 
 the display of discretion rather than valor. 
 
 "Mr. , I believe I have forgotten your name," 
 
 began Mrs. Hardwick in a most business-like tone. 
 
 "Spafford," contributed the manager. 
 
 "Oh! yes, Mr. Spafford. Well, Mr. Spafford, you 
 told me yesterday that you had two of my Thursday 
 afternoons engaged." 
 
 "Yes, madam." He consulted a memorandum book. 
 The second in January and the third in February." 
 
 "I should like you to cancel those contracts," said 
 Mrs. Hardwick, quite calmly, with no idea that she 
 was proposing anything very extraordinary. 
 
 "Impossible," said the manager, aghast. 
 
 "That is a word which I do not admit into my 
 vocabulary. It is not impossible. The days under 
 consideration have not yet arrived, and therefore it is 
 quite possible for those who have engaged these days 
 to make a change in their plans." 
 
 "But my dear Madam " 
 
 "No buts, if you please. Have the kindness to tell 
 me by whom these days were engaged." 
 
 "The January date was engaged by the Steinmetz 
 Musical Academy, and the other by Henry Barberton, 
 the lecturer." 
 
 "I know Mr. Steinmetz very well. You will please 
 tell him I should like to have him change his day. As 
 for Mr. Barberton "
 
 248 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "But, madam, we never we have never." The poor 
 little man could not go on; such a proposal had never 
 been made to him before. Mrs. Hardwick did not give 
 him a chance to collect his scattered wits, however, 
 and went on serenely: 
 
 "On second thought you need not concern yourself 
 with Mr. Steinmetz, I shall see to him, but I look to 
 you to effect the change in Mr. Barberton s date. That 
 is final. Now, if you will be good enough to make out 
 the papers necessary to secure the first sixteen Thursday 
 afternoons in the New Year, I shall be glad to sign." 
 
 "But I cannot rent the hall to you on dates which 
 have already been taken." 
 
 "Yes, you can. You may possibly not be able to give 
 me possession of the hall on those dates, but you can 
 rent it to me, and I insist that you do so." 
 
 "Well," said the manager, yielding not so much to 
 her arguments as to his fear of further discussion with 
 her, "if I may insert a proviso that the two days in 
 question are to be subject to the withdrawal of their 
 present holders, I see no difficulty." 
 
 "You might have saved some time and trouble," 
 said Mrs. Hardwick severely, "if you had done so in the 
 first place. As I said, I will answer for Mr. Steinmetz s 
 withdrawal and even Mr. Barberton s, if you should 
 not be able to obtain it." 
 
 Mr. Spafford filled out a form of lease which he 
 handed to Mrs. Hardwick.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 249 
 
 "Where are the dates specified?" she asked. 
 
 He pointed out the place and Mrs. Hardwick exam 
 ined it, and, having satisfied herself on this one point, 
 asked for a pen. 
 
 "One moment, please, Madam, "said the little man, 
 "I must ask you it is quite customary to make a 
 deposit." He was very much abashed. 
 
 "That is perfectly satisfactory," said Mrs. Hardwick 
 in her grandest manner, "how much do you wish?" 
 
 "I think in this case that two hundred dollars would 
 be sufficient. You might then pay sixty odd dollars 
 before each performance." 
 
 "Performance!" cried Mrs. Hardwick. "I am not 
 going to give a performance. I shall deliver a series of 
 talks on current topics. I object to the word per 
 formance ." 
 
 "I beg your pardon," said the manager meekly. "I 
 used the word unintentionally, quite." 
 
 "Very well," said Mrs. Hardwick grandly. "When do 
 you wish this payment?" 
 
 "Now," replied the manager. "I am very sorry, but 
 it is our custom, and I am unable to change it." 
 
 "You need not apologize," said Mrs. Hardwick. 
 "Unfortunately, I have not my check book with me. 
 I believe you have yours, have you not?" She turned 
 to Mrs. Hutchinson. 
 
 That lady had it, but she did not wish to advance 
 so large a sum. She would have liked to deny having
 
 250 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 it, but Mrs. Hardwick s air was so positive that she 
 felt the check-book s presence in her bag must be known 
 by her friend, so, inwardly reluctant, she produced it. 
 
 "I don t know whether my balance is as large as 
 that," she said apologetically. 
 
 "You might look, if you please," said Mrs. Hard wick. 
 Her tone was honey, but Mrs. Hutchinson felt it as a 
 command. 
 
 In a few minutes the check was written and the lease 
 signed and then the ladies departed. 
 
 At seven o clock Mrs. Hardwick called at the Sedley 
 house and received her letters of introduction from 
 Miss Hatch. She regretted her inability to use any of 
 them until the next day, so impatient was she to push 
 forward with the enterprise. It was the first time in her 
 life that she had ever engaged in any solicitation of this 
 sort. Always before, her efforts had been devoted to 
 
 obtaining small subscriptions for small charities. As 
 
 
 
 might be expected, she had been a member of various 
 literary societies, usually ultimate affairs which held 
 their meetings at the several members houses, but that 
 was all. 
 
 But now, at last, she felt that she was coming into 
 her own, that this was her true vocation. This was a 
 serious business for her in which her conscious purpose 
 was confined to the good work she would do in the way 
 of educating the public. Mrs. Hardwick was never in 
 any doubt as to the extraordinarily high quality of her
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 251 
 
 intellectuality. Her readiness of speech was a complete 
 deception even to herself. Her opinions, on whatever 
 subject, were sound because they were positive. Words 
 came to her as insects to a flame; her glibness of speech, 
 the result of infinite practice in unending garrulity, 
 had become second nature, and she seized upon any 
 aspect of whatever subject attracted her attention and 
 her volubility upon that one aspect made it appear to 
 unthinking listeners as the whole of the subject. And 
 even more than to her listeners did it so appear to her. 
 Consequently, she almost never made a thorough study 
 of anything. She went only deep enough to find material 
 for speech and, that point once reached, she felt that 
 the subject was completely within her grasp and dilated 
 upon what she knew accordingly. 
 
 Hardwick did not dine at home on that evening. He 
 was at work in the office upon the catalogue. Mrs. 
 Hardwick was disappointed, because she wanted him 
 to hear about the progress she had made. When he 
 came home it was very late and he was too tired and 
 sleepy to pay much attention to her. 
 
 However, when she asked him whether he could 
 advance two hundred dollars which she had borrowed 
 of Mrs. Hutchinson, he told her flatly that he could not 
 do so because he did not have it. Mrs. Hardwick did 
 not argue the matter with him and dropped the subject 
 completely, much to his relief. He wanted to sleep. 
 
 Promptly the next day Mrs. Hardwick set about the
 
 252 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 delivery of her letters. By dint of great perseverance, 
 she succeeded in obtaining as patronesses five of the 
 six women she saw on that day, every one of whom 
 subscribed to at least four tickets, and three of them 
 took six. Mrs. Hardwick did not rest content with 
 mere promises to subscribe but asked for and obtained 
 payment in each case. Thus, armed with three hundred 
 and ninety dollars, she was more jubilant than ever, 
 and, as she paid over to Mrs. Hutchinson the two 
 hundred dollars she had borrowed the day before, she 
 drew a vivid picture, in many, many words, of the 
 furore that the talks would cause. 
 
 "Really, my dear," she said, "it will be wonderful. 
 My only regret is that I never thought of it before. 
 I know that this idea is not new, but really it has 
 never been done well. If you will pardon what seems 
 to be vanity, I shall tell you that I shall surpass the 
 expectations of everyone. I have given the matter 
 constant thought and am convinced that my grasp of 
 the problem is as nearly complete as anything human 
 could be. Mrs. Ingham, you have heard of her, of 
 course, was wonderfully impressed. And Mrs. Cart- 
 wright, a most charming woman, you know of them, the 
 Cartwrights are so much in the public eye, was really 
 enthusiastic." And so on. 
 
 By Saturday afternoon, as the result of almost 
 incredible labor and perseverance, Mrs. Hardwick 
 had secured eighteen acceptances, in each case accom-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 253 
 
 panied by a subscription. Altogether she had received 
 nearly fourteen hundred dollars. She deposited this 
 money, except, of course, the two hundred dollars she 
 had paid to Mrs. Hutchinson, in her private account, 
 and on Sunday paid every one of her household bills. 
 Altogether this took less than four hundred dollars. 
 
 She had not mentioned the matter again to her 
 husband. With his refusal to advance the two hundred 
 dollars necessary to repay Mrs. Hutchinson, Mrs. 
 Hardwick had suddenly remembered that she had told 
 him that she would come to him neither for money nor 
 advice. For once, therefore, she was reticent and did 
 not take him further into her confidence. Hardwick 
 was really not much interested. He figured that the 
 project was foredoomed to failure and, when it did 
 occur to him, presumed that it was dead. 
 
 He did not even observe the payment of her bills 
 on Sunday. He was busy for much of the day with the 
 preparation of the advertising copy for McCabe. When 
 he began work upon it, he regretted that he had ever 
 undertaken it. He felt guilty, ashamed. He told himself 
 that he had in no way been influenced hi McCabe s 
 favor with regard to placing the contract for printing 
 the catalogue. McCabe had earned that work by his 
 low price, and, by giving the order to him the company 
 had saved a thousand dollars. This thought and many 
 more of a similar kind finally gave his conscience 
 partial ease and interest in the work did the rest.
 
 254 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick set to work again promptly on 
 Monday morning. There were still several of the 
 proposed patronesses to see and she saw them, and, in 
 most cases, secured their acceptances and subscriptions. 
 
 On Monday afternoon and Tuesday she and Mrs. 
 Hutchinson attended to ordering the necessary printing 
 and also visited one of the newspaper offices. Mrs. 
 Hardwick took it for granted that an announcement of 
 her plans would gladly be printed as news by the 
 editor and was much disappointed when she was referred 
 to the advertising department. She indignantly refused 
 to advertise, and told the editor that he quite mis 
 understood her purpose. This was a public matter, 
 one of interest to everybody, and that it was most 
 important that they print news of it. 
 
 "But you charge admission," said the editor. 
 
 "No tickets will be sold," answered Mrs. Hardwick, 
 in her grandest manner. "I do not wish you to under 
 stand that admission is free; that would not be correct. 
 Admission will be limited strictly to subscribers, and, 
 as I have engaged Wilberforce Hall, there will be 
 accommodations for only one thousand people. At the 
 meeting of patronesses, to-morrow afternoon, at Mrs. 
 L. Percival Sedley s house, we shall " 
 
 "Mrs. L. Percival Sedley," interrupted the editor. 
 "Has she anything to do with it?" 
 
 "Mrs. Sedley heads the list of patronesses. There are 
 also Mrs. Ingham, Mrs. Cartwright," and Mrs. Hard 
 wick gave the complete list.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 255 
 
 "Did you say there would be a meeting at Mrs. 
 Sedley s house to-morrow afternoon?" 
 
 "Yes, and at the meeting we shall " 
 
 "Mrs. Hardwick," again interrupted the editor, 
 "will you give us an exclusive account of that meeting?" 
 
 "Certainly not," answered she, seeing that the tables 
 were turned, "but I will agree to give you an authorita 
 tive interview. You may use my name. You may have 
 a reporter at my house at half-past six.". 
 
 The editor did not seem to be much excited by the 
 permission to use Mrs. Hardwick s name, but said: 
 
 "Thank you very much." 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick s efforts with the other papers were 
 equally fruitful and she came home that evening feeling 
 very well content with the result of her work. 
 
 The meeting at Mrs. Sedley s house the next day, 
 however, gave her the greatest joy she had ever known. 
 In the first place, she was in the company of the richest 
 and socially most exclusive women in the city, and, 
 what was most sweet to her, was treated by them with 
 great respect. There were half a dozen women there 
 whose mental capacity far exceeded hers, but not one 
 who was a fair match for her in fluent talk. She managed 
 the meeting from beginning to end and was surprised 
 to find that these women of wealth and fashion, whom 
 she had vaguely imagined as creatures superior to 
 their sisters, were quite as easy to order about, quite 
 as ready to follow the definite initiative of another, as 
 any of their sex she had ever met.
 
 256 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick arranged everything. Each patroness 
 was to have a certain number of subscriptions to dispose 
 of. All subscriptions were to be made through patron 
 esses; no tickets were to be sold to the general public. 
 The audience was to be selected with great care. Each 
 patroness was to be furnished with a form letter which 
 she was to send to a chosen list announcing to the 
 recipient that he or she was granted permission to 
 subscribe to the course, the offer to be dated and open 
 for two days only. After that it was to be withdrawn. 
 Everybody was delighted with the unique plan and all 
 of them left the meeting enthusiastic, Mrs. Hardwick s 
 closing speech still ringing hi their ears. 
 
 "And now, ladies, I wish to thank you for the interest 
 you have taken hi this work. It proves to me that my 
 conviction of its usefulness to the public was well 
 founded. It will be an example to others, to follow where 
 we have led. It will be a stimulus to many thousands 
 to devote their efforts to acquiring a correct view of 
 contemporary events. I have no doubt that it will be 
 the means to bring about a country-wide interest, not 
 only in world politics, but in American national and 
 local politics as well, and thus will be prepared the solid 
 ground work for fitness to discharge the duties entailed 
 upon our sex by the imminent grant of suffrage. 
 
 "Ladies I thank you!"
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 HARD WICK came home that evening suffer 
 ing from a severe depression of spirits. He 
 had been called into Pemberton s office 
 during the afternoon and a categorical statement of 
 the condition of the work on the catalogue had been 
 demanded. When the matter was reduced to the actual 
 accomplishment, it was evident that Hardwick was 
 far behind his schedule, even allowing for his loss of 
 time owing to Alice s death. Practically every portion 
 of the work was under way, but now, at the end of 
 November, nearly all of the preparatory work should 
 have been completed, and not quite half of it was done. 
 
 "I am very much disappointed, Hardwick," said 
 Pemberton coldly. "You have fallen far short of what 
 you promised. I see that I cannot leave this matter 
 entirely in your hands, and will have to ask that you 
 make a daily report to me hereafter. I want you to 
 have a schedule prepared and I shall see that it is 
 followed exactly. 
 
 "I see you have placed this order with the McCabe 
 concern," he continued. "What led you to do that?" 
 
 "McCabe s price was a thousand dollars less than 
 any of the others," answered Hardwick. He was very 
 uncomfortable. 
 
 "I wouldn t have placed the business with him if his 
 
 257
 
 258 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 price had been five thousand dollars less. You ought to 
 know him. The man s crooked and is not to be depended 
 on in any way. His work is not first class and his 
 methods are rotten. It s poor business to save a thou 
 sand dollars if by doing so you run the chance of spoiling 
 a fifteen thousand dollar job. You ought to know all 
 about him. You re no new comer in this business." 
 
 "I felt that I knew enough about the printing busi 
 ness to make McCabe give us what we want," answered 
 Hardwick. "I ve made him agree to submit every form 
 before he starts to run and I ve put a penalty of fifty 
 dollars a day on him for delay in delivery." 
 
 "That s downright silly," said Pemberton sternly. 
 "That sort of agreement won t hold water, and McCabe 
 won t be slow to take advantage of it. As to your 
 running his business for him, and that s what you 
 propose to do when you show your distrust of him by 
 exacting the right to pass on his work in process, that s 
 entirely out of your province. I made my views on the 
 buying of printing clear to you at the beginning and 
 this is exactly what I told you not to do." 
 
 "I m very sorry," began Hardwick, and then was 
 silent. ^ ** ,,*. , 
 
 "So am I," answered Pemberton, "but that does no 
 good now. I should like to see McCabe. Have him here 
 to-morrow morning at ten, and get that schedule ready 
 for me." There was a finality hi his tone which indicated 
 to Hardwick that the interview was at an end. He got
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 259 
 
 up from his chair and was about to leave the room, 
 when Pemberton said: 
 
 "Send Miss Bernstein to me." 
 
 "Very well," answered Hardwick and left. 
 
 He told Ruth that Mr. Pemberton wished to see her 
 and then sat down at his desk. He was completely dis 
 couraged. It seemed that he could not make a success 
 of anything. Some evil fate constantly pursued him and 
 set all of his plans at naught. 
 
 But he did not have long to bewail his portion undis 
 turbed. As soon as Ruth left the office, Miss Henderson 
 came over to him and sat down at his desk. She looked 
 worried, he noted an unusual pallor in her face. 
 
 "What is it?" he asked. 
 
 "I ve pulled an awful bone-head stunt," she began 
 nervously. "I don t know what you ll think of me." 
 
 "Well?" he asked, disturbed. 
 
 "You know that stuff you gave me to copy for you 
 that you told me you wanted kept dark." 
 
 "Yes, what about it? You gave it to me a little while 
 ago; it was all right." 
 
 "I know, but there was one page that had some 
 mistakes in it and I re-wrote it; I thought I had thrown 
 it in the waste basket." She paused. 
 
 "Well?" he asked anxiously. "Go on." 
 
 "I don t know how I ever did it, but I got it mixed 
 with some stuff I was copying for Miss Bernstein." 
 
 Hardwick had a sudden sinking sensation as Miss 
 Henderson continued:
 
 260 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Just a little while ago, when you were in with the 
 boss, she called me and asked what it was. Well, you 
 could have knocked me down with a feather. I was 
 so fussed that I couldn t say a word. I just took the 
 paper and walked away. Are you awful sore at me?" 
 
 "What did you do with the paper?" asked Hardwick. 
 He was making a great effort to master the fear that 
 gripped him. He wondered whether his agitation showed 
 in his demeanor. 
 
 "I tore it up," answered Miss Henderson contritely. 
 "I guess you think I m some boob." 
 
 "Oh! It s of no consequence," said Hardwick after a 
 moment. "Don t bother about it. You didn t do it 
 intentionally. It really doesn t matter, there wasn t 
 any occasion to make a great secret of it." He had 
 suddenly remembered that there was nothing in the 
 copy to indicate that it was for McCabe and that it 
 would not be difficult to explain in the unlikely event 
 that the question should be put to him. 
 
 "Oh! I m awful glad," said Miss Henderson, and left 
 him, visibly relieved. 
 
 But she had no sooner left him than he was again 
 troubled. What a silly ass he was, after all, to have had 
 Miss Henderson make the copy for him. Why hadn t 
 he taken it to some stenographer outside? And then he 
 remembered he had not done so after having thought 
 of it because he was afraid that he might accidentally 
 run into someone who would think it quite suspicious
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 261 
 
 for him to go to some stenographer outside of the office. 
 Not that he feared that anyone would question him; it 
 was suspicion that he could not meet, the whispering 
 about him that he would not hear. 
 
 And then he wished again that he had never under 
 taken the work at all. How had he ever been such a 
 fool as to let himself drift into this mess? He saw the 
 whole transaction now in its true light. He had allowed 
 himself to be played upon by McCabe as though he 
 were the merest beginner, he, Hardwick, who had 
 always rather looked down upon McCabe as distinctly 
 his inferior. And then he began to excuse himself. It 
 was his pressing want of money which had blinded him, 
 the extravagance of his wife, and, in a sullen fit of anger 
 at her, he found some relief from his self-recrimination. 
 
 Mechanically, he began to prepare the schedule which 
 Pemberton had demanded, and, as he got into the 
 work, it suddenly occurred to him that the management 
 of the catalogue was being taken out of his hands, and 
 that he had lost Pemberton s confidence. He gave him 
 self up to sheer misery as he worked mechanically at 
 the schedule. Would nothing ever go right with him? 
 Why was he always to fail, why was he always the 
 sport of the fates? In his desperation he tried to put 
 these thoughts out of his mind, but he could not do so, 
 and, although he applied himself to his work, they 
 recurred and recurred. 
 
 Meanwhile Ruth had entered Pemberton s office.
 
 262 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "What s the matter with Hardwick on this cata 
 logue?" he asked brusquely, as she entered. 
 
 "I m not sure that I know what you mean," she 
 answered. 
 
 "Why has he gotten behind with his copy?" 
 
 "He s had all sorts of trouble. Every shop hi town 
 is short handed. The photographers have disappointed 
 him again and again." 
 
 "Why does he let them disappoint him? He ought to 
 keep after them, he s surely had enough experience 
 with those fellows. They re all alike. Sit down, won t 
 you?" Ruth had been standing all of this time. She 
 seated herself. 
 
 "He has been keeping after them all of this and last 
 week," she said. "The work s going pretty well now. 
 He ought to have everything in the printer s hands by 
 the tenth or twelfth of December. He works at it nearly 
 every night." 
 
 "That reminds me. How did he happen to give this 
 job to McCabe? Do you know anything about it?" 
 
 "Yes; McCabe s bid was a thousand dollars lower 
 than any other." 
 
 "But he s no good. He never should have had a 
 chance to bid." 
 
 Ruth was silent. Pemberton looked for a reply, but, 
 receiving none, asked: 
 
 "Don t you think so?" 
 
 "I wouldn t give him any work. I don t think he s 
 trustworthy."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 263 
 
 "Did Hardwick consult you?" 
 
 "He discussed the matter with me, but he didn t 
 ask my advice." 
 
 "Did you encourage him to give the work to 
 McCabe?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Did you advise him not to?" 
 
 "Not exactly, but I told him of Mr. McNair s 
 experience." 
 
 Pemberton was silent for a moment. 
 
 "I wonder whether there s any graft in this," he said 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "Oh! I m sure there s not," said Ruth hastily. But 
 as she uttered the words, it suddenly occurred to her 
 that the piece of advertising copy which Miss Henderson 
 had inadvertently given her might have been work done 
 for McCabe by Hardwick. There was no real reason 
 for it, but the stenographer s obvious confusion and 
 her taking the paper away without making any answer 
 made it clear that she had been instructed to keep the 
 matter secret. No one in the office could have given 
 her the work to do except Hardwick, and his only 
 reason for enjoining secrecy would be that it was work 
 which he had a good reason for concealing. 
 
 Ruth was now convinced that Hardwick was working 
 for McCabe. She did not see that the evidence was 
 utterly incomplete, because the coincidence of Pember- 
 ton s question as to Hardwick s honesty and the
 
 264 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 surreptitious writing of the copy was sufficient to put 
 this idea into her head, not as a suspicion, but as a 
 settled conviction. She was greatly troubled, for it 
 was her first experience of the kind and she did not 
 know what to do. She would have been much relieved 
 had she been able to confide in Pemberton, but his 
 position made him the last man in the world to whom 
 she might tell it. She must get away and think it 
 over alone. She would watch and wait. 
 
 These thoughts took the merest instant to form in 
 her mind. Her demeanor gave no indication of her 
 trouble and Pemberton had no inkling that her quick 
 repudiation of his suspicion had been followed by more 
 than suspicion on her own part. He was silent for a 
 moment after she spoke and then said: 
 
 "Well, I ve told Hardwick that I m going to take a 
 hand in the business. He s to prepare a schedule of 
 the work for me, and to report daily. I ve told him to 
 bring McCabe here to-morrow morning and I ll put 
 the fear of God into him." He smiled grimly. 
 
 Ruth again marvelled at him. What a wonderful man 
 he was, unlike any other she had ever met. She felt, now 
 that she knew that he would keep in close touch with 
 the work on the catalogue, that the result would be 
 all that could be wished for. There were no impossi 
 bilities for Pemberton; even facts, or what passed for 
 facts with others, yielded before his will. 
 
 "I want you to keep your eyes open on this job, too,"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 265 
 
 he continued. "I want you to report to me anything 
 you think I ought to know. I don t believe there will 
 be any need, but I want to be sure there ll be no slip 
 ups." 
 
 "Very well," answered Ruth. She felt that the inter 
 view was over and got up to go. 
 
 "One minute," said Pemberton. "Have you anything 
 on for this evening?" 
 
 "Why, no," she answered. 
 
 "Would you like me to run out to see you?" 
 
 "I d be very glad." 
 
 "All right. I ll be out about eight o clock." He felt 
 happy in the prospect and forgot his anger. What 
 difference did anything make, he thought, if he could 
 have her. 
 
 When Ruth mentioned to her mother that Pemberton 
 intended to spend the evening with her, Mrs. Bernstein 
 showed that she was displeased. 
 
 "What s the matter, Mother?" Ruth asked. 
 
 "Nothing," answered that lady. 
 
 "Yes, there is. I can see it." 
 
 "No, there isn t." 
 
 "You re displeased because Fred s coming, aren t 
 you?" 
 
 "Well, I don t like him, and I don t want you to 
 marry him." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I ve told you often I don t believe in marriages
 
 266 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 between Jews and Christians, and, anyway, I don t like 
 him. He s not polite." 
 
 "Fred isn t much of a Christian. He never goes to 
 church. As for politeness, I don t know what you mean, 
 he has fine manners." 
 
 Mrs. Bernstein did not dislike Pemberton for any 
 reason that she was able to put into words. She did not 
 like him and he did not like her because, basically, 
 they were mutually antagonistic. As a matter of fact, 
 she had no particular prejudice against Christians, she 
 had no valid reasons against what she called "mixed 
 marriages." She merely used these excuses to justify 
 her dislike. 
 
 "He never pays any attention to what I say to him," 
 she said. "He just sits there and I can see he s thinking 
 of something else." 
 
 "Well, I haven t promised to marry him yet. I don t 
 mind saying that I often think of it, but I just can t 
 make up my mind. You know I ve got a long time to 
 think it over." 
 
 "I wish you d give up your position there. We don t 
 need the money now, since the Consolidated is paying 
 dividends," said Mrs. Bernstein. This was a recent 
 occurrence, the first payment of dividends, accompanied 
 by a material rise in the market value of a mining stock 
 in which the late Mr. Bernstein had made a considerable 
 investment. 
 
 "Oh! I d be unhappy if I couldn t go to the office,"
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 267 
 
 cried Ruth. "By the way, did you get a reference for 
 that maid that promised to come?" 
 
 "Yes, she s a pretty good girl. I wonder whether she 
 really will come. They re awfully scarce these days, 
 and independent! You d think they were doing you a 
 favor." 
 
 "Well, they are, aren t they?" asked Ruth laughing. 
 
 As she was clearing the table after dinner, her 
 mother said: 
 
 "If you marry Fred Pemberton, you know I couldn t 
 live with you and we d be separated." 
 
 "No, we wouldn t, cried Ruth. "Nobody will ever 
 separate us." 
 
 "He will," said her mother, "if you marry him. He 
 doesn t like me." 
 
 "Oh! that s foolish. He always speaks beautifully 
 about you. He s always asking me how you are." 
 
 Several times, during Pemberton s visit, Ruth found 
 herself on the point of speaking to him about her 
 discovery, but checked herself each time. She was 
 unusually happy in his company this evening, as he 
 was in what was a gay humor for him; in fact, at one 
 time, Ruth felt that he was actually about to laugh.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 MRS. HARD WICK was not generally an early 
 riser, although she would have been quite 
 indignant had anyone intimated a suspicion 
 of the truth. And her indignation would have been 
 inspired by the sincere belief that such an imputation 
 was entirely outside of the facts. She did not count the 
 times she was late, even though they greatly out 
 numbered the others; the extraordinary feeling of 
 virtue which pervaded her when she actually arose 
 early was sufficient to make her look upon her frequent 
 lapses as quite exceptional. 
 
 However, on the morning following the meeting of 
 patronesses at Mrs. L. Percival Sedley s house there 
 was no doubt of her early rising. She was anxious to 
 see the morning paper and, in her impatience, she came 
 downstairs nearly half an hour before its arrival. It 
 seemed much more to her, but when the newspaper was 
 actually in her hands and she had read the account of 
 the meeting, and had tasted the exquisite joy of seeing 
 her name mentioned with those of the socially dis 
 tinguished coterie who had lent the lustre of their 
 names to her enterprise, she forgot all about the 
 vexation she had experienced in waiting. 
 
 She had held to her reticence concerning this subject 
 in her husband s presence, but now, with this palpable 
 
 268
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 269 
 
 proof of her success in the public prints, she was ready, 
 nay, anxious to compel his admiration. He had not yet 
 come downstairs, so she had ample opportunity to read 
 the notice several times and then to leave the paper, 
 folded so that, as she thought, his eye would instantly 
 be attracted to it. 
 
 But this morning he was late, in a bad humor and in 
 a great hurry. He did not even look at the newspaper, 
 but tossed it to one side and bolted his breakfast in a 
 few minutes. Directly he was through with it he left 
 the house. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was disappointed but inclined to be 
 philosophical. He would see the notice as he read the 
 newspaper on his way to the office. Perhaps it was all 
 the better so. Undoubtedly, it was in the other papers 
 too, and people would be sure to speak to him of it 
 during the day and he would come home immensely 
 impressed. 
 
 She was going out this morning to see Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son to discuss some details of the project with her, and, 
 after she had given some necessary instructions to her 
 maid, she went upstairs to dress. She had scarcely 
 begun, however, when there was a ring on the telephone. 
 It was from a slight acquaintance of hers who, after 
 the essential preliminaries, asked if she might subscribe 
 to the course of talks. Mrs. Hardwick promised to 
 secure her a ticket if possible and was about to resume 
 dressing when the telephone rang again. It was another
 
 270 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 request of the same nature, and after that she had no 
 chance to finish dressing. All morning long she was 
 answering the same kind of request. In her naivete 
 she took it as a personal testimonial and her spirits 
 soared. Ah! success was sweet. Why had she permitted 
 herself to remain so long in obscurity when the very 
 first mention of her appearance in public brought such 
 sweeping evidence of her popularity? 
 
 Hardwick s irritation was due to a restless night 
 following his trouble of the day before. He hurried to 
 the office and immediately got into touch with the 
 several concerns who were working on the preparation 
 of the catalogue. He impressed on every one of them 
 the necessity for pushing the work, made his notations 
 on the schedule he had prepared for Pemberton and 
 sent it into the business manager s office. 
 
 At a few minutes before ten o clock McCabe appeared. 
 
 "What s up?" he inquired, cheerfully. 
 
 "Mr. Pemberton wants to see you about the cata 
 logue." 
 
 "Nothing wrong?" asked McCabe, apparently still 
 cheerful, but inwardly somewhat uneasy. 
 
 "No," answered Hardwick in a manner which invali 
 dated the direct negative of his answer. "He didn t say 
 why he wanted to see you, but I suppose he wants to 
 make sure there ll be no delay." 
 
 "Oh! if that s all, I can satisfy him," said McCabe 
 with relief. "Let s go to him," he continued, anxious 
 to have the interview over.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 271 
 
 Hardwick called the operator and made known to 
 Pemberton that McCabe was present. In a few minutes 
 word came that Mr. Pemberton would see him. 
 
 Both men went into the business manager s office. 
 
 "You ve met Mr. McCabe, I believe," said Hardwick 
 as he closed the door behind him. 
 
 "Yes," answered Pemberton without looking up. 
 
 "Sit down, Mr. McCabe," he continued, and then 
 looking at Hardwick, said to him, "Will you bring me 
 the contract that we have made for the printing of this 
 job?" 
 
 Hardwick left at once. As he walked to his own desk, 
 he wondered what Pemberton was going to say to 
 McCabe during his absence. Could it be that Miss 
 Bernstein might have had her suspicion aroused by the 
 scrap of copy which Miss Henderson had inadvertently 
 given her and had communicated it to Pemberton? He 
 experienced a sudden depression as this occurred to him 
 and fear gripped him to such an extent that he was 
 incapable of consecutive thought. He was ready to give 
 up his position, go away, do anything rather than be 
 subject to this horrible fear. 
 
 As he came to his desk, he saw Ruth working at hers. 
 Her expression showed her intense interest in her work 
 and made it perfectly obvious that she was not aware 
 of his proximity, but, in the disordered state of his 
 mind, he felt that she was consciously avoiding his 
 glance, and this new idea confirmed the suspicion that 
 she had told Pemberton about the piece of copy.
 
 272 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 He took the contract from a drawer of his desk, and 
 was about to return to Pemberton s office, when Ruth 
 called to him. She asked some question of no great 
 importance, but her manner completely reassured him 
 and his recent fear vanished. He spoke with her in 
 answer to her question for more than a minute and 
 thus nearly three minutes passed while he was out of 
 Pemberton s office. 
 
 Pemberton, as usual, wasted no time in preliminaries. 
 As soon as Hardwick had gone, he began: 
 
 "See here, McCabe," he said, "you ve got an order 
 from this company that you d never have had if I d 
 been consulted." 
 
 McCabe raised his hand in deprecation, but Pember 
 ton paid no attention to his gesture and went on. 
 
 "The kind of work we expect on this book is better 
 than you usually do. I don t know whether you can do 
 as good work as we want or not, but I know you 
 usually don t do it. Your price was one thousand dollars 
 less than the lowest of four other bidders, and I want 
 to give you notice right now that if you intended to 
 save any large part of that difference by giving us an 
 inferior quality of work, I won t stand for it." There 
 was something in Pemberton s manner that was too 
 much for McCabe. All of his usual assurance left him 
 and he was mentally cringing before his superior 
 adversary. 
 
 "Why, Mr. Pemberton," he began.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 273 
 
 "Wait," said the other, "you ll get your chance to 
 talk when you ve heard what I have to say. If you 
 listen to me, you ll know just what to answer instead of 
 floundering around. You see, I know you and I know 
 what your business methods are. I haven t forgotten 
 the last transaction we had with you and I don t propose 
 to have any repetition of it. Just so that you know where 
 you re at in this thing, I don t mind telling you that I 
 can cancel this order and all you ll be able to recover 
 is the actual damage you have suffered. Actual damage, 
 remember, not potential damage. You ll get a few hun 
 dred dollars and that s all. I tell you this to induce you 
 to be reasonable." 
 
 The expression on McCabe s face at this moment 
 indicated plainly that he was prepared to be reasonable 
 or anything else that Pemberton might demand. 
 
 "What do you want?" he asked. 
 
 Hardwick came in before Pemberton had a chance 
 to answer, laid the contract on his desk, and then sat 
 down. 
 
 "I ll tell you hi a minute," said Pemberton to 
 McCabe, and then picked up the contract and set 
 himself to reading it. As he read, the others looked 
 about the room and at each other. They felt like crim 
 inals before the bar of justice, each, however, in his 
 own way. Presently, Pemberton finished his reading 
 and turning to Hardwick said: 
 
 "What does this mean; the specification Snowdrift 
 Enamel or paper of equal quality ?"
 
 274 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Mr. McCabe has submitted a sample of paper 
 which I consider fully equal in every respect to Snow 
 drift and I have approved it." 
 
 Pemberton did not answer him, but turned to 
 McCabe and asked: 
 
 "Was it the substitution of this paper for Snowdrift 
 which made it possible for you to underbid the other 
 fellows?" 
 
 "Yes," answered McCabe. 
 
 "What is the paper?" 
 
 "I can t tell you that. It s a confidential matter. 
 I bought it way under price, and I m giving you the 
 advantage of the saving." 
 
 "If you won t tell me what it is, I ll refuse to accept 
 it," said Pemberton quietly but with a positiveness that 
 left no doubt that he would do exactly as he said. 
 
 "But Mr. Hard wick has already approved it," said 
 McCabe. 
 
 "Very well. I repudiate Mr. Hardwick s action. The 
 paper has not yet been made unmarketable. Use it for 
 something else, or sell it. We ll take Snowdrift Enamel." 
 
 McCabe was beaten. He knew that Pemberton was 
 not bluffing. 
 
 "It is Snowdrift Enamel," he said nervously. 
 
 "Seconds?" asked Pemberton. 
 
 "Not exactly," said McCabe, "it s a lot which was 
 turned back on them for some reason or other, but it 
 isn t seconds."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 275 
 
 "But you bought it for seconds, didn t you? I mean 
 at the price of seconds." 
 
 "Yes," answered McCabe. He was literally afraid 
 to lie. 
 
 "Very well. Send us a few quires of the paper and 
 we ll have it tested. Let me see, you saved over twelve 
 hundred dollars on the paper, didn t you?" 
 
 "Yes," answered McCabe again. 
 
 "That explains the difference in price. At that rate 
 your price is considerably higher for the labor on the 
 job than those of your competitors. That establishes 
 the fact that you re going to get a fair price for the work 
 you do." He looked at McCabe searchingly, and 
 awaited his assent. 
 
 And again McCabe said: "Yes." 
 
 "Now then, listen to me. There are two important 
 questions to answer. First, can you, are you able to do 
 a first-class job in every respect?" 
 
 "I can do as well as anybody in town. I have the 
 best" 
 
 "Never mind what you have," interrupted Pember- 
 ton. "You ve said you can make a first-class job and 
 that s enough. Now, second, if we put all of the copy 
 and cuts in your hands by the fifteenth of December, 
 can you finish the work in a strictly first-class manner 
 and deliver all of the books by January fifteenth?" 
 
 "Yes," said McCabe, "if there s no delay in passing 
 proofs."
 
 276 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Very well. Now listen to me again. The ordinary 
 experience with printers who are either slow in delivery 
 or who turn out work of an unsatisfactory quality is 
 that you ve got to take whatever they give you when 
 ever they re ready to give it to you simply because there 
 is almost never time to replace the work elsewhere. 
 This is not our case. I very much prefer to get out a 
 catalogue because we have gotten one out every year. 
 But this year I have the best excuse in the world for 
 not getting one out. In the first place, I don t know 
 whether we ll have any goods to sell, the government 
 will commandeer every ounce of steel that s made, and 
 it s extremely doubtful whether we ll be able to get any 
 supplies. And in the second, we have been urged to 
 economize in our printing in order to save paper. I 
 tell you these things because I m quite willing to send 
 out a mere price list with a circular telling the trade 
 that, in view of conditions, we are not justified in issuing 
 a catalogue. Take this from me: If your work is behind 
 the time specified or is not fully up to the standard of 
 quality which we demand, we ll simply refuse to accept 
 it and you ll either pocket your loss of nearly nine 
 thousand dollars immediately or throw good money 
 after bad to the lawyers who ll fool around with it 
 for a couple of years to no purpose. Do you get me?" 
 He looked sternly at McCabe, who was visibly uncom 
 fortable. 
 
 "There s no need of your telling me all this, Mr.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 277 
 
 Pemberton," he said, "I m going to give you a square 
 deal. You ll get a first-class job in every respect and 
 you ll get it on time." 
 
 "That s up to you. If you make good, all right. We ll 
 pay your bill for the amount specified in your bid, 
 but not one cent for extras unless you can show a 
 written order stating the amount to be paid. If you fall 
 down, you won t get a cent." Pemberton stood up, 
 indicating that the interview was at an end. 
 The others rose also. As he got up McCabe said: 
 "You d have all your plates on your hands." 
 "Sure," answered Pemberton. "We can use them next 
 year just as well. Good morning, McCabe. Hardwick, 
 I want to talk to you." 
 
 When the door closed on McCabe, Pemberton said: 
 "I thought you knew something about the printing 
 business." There was a distinct sneer in his tone. 
 Hardwick, who had sat, literally in wonder at the 
 masterful manner in which Pemberton had handled 
 McCabe, was himself so cowed by his superior that he 
 did not even resent it. 
 "I thought I did," he answered. 
 "How do you explain the contract you made with 
 that skin?" 
 
 "I wanted to save the difference of a thousand 
 dollars and I counted upon watching the progress of the 
 job so as to make sure we d get the work done right 
 and in good time."
 
 278 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "I told you what I thought of that yesterday, so 
 there s no use repeating it." He paused for a moment. 
 "I don t want you to place any more orders for printing 
 without first submitting the matter to me. Now, let s 
 go over your schedule." 
 
 When Hardwick left Pemberton s office, he was as 
 miserable as he had ever been in his life. He felt utterly 
 crushed, so completely hemmed in by his necessities 
 that he could not assert the remnant of independence 
 that was left in him. No, he must bear this for his 
 family s sake. If he gave up this position, he would not 
 know where to go, he would surely be unable to obtain 
 a salary such as he had here, and even that was insuffi 
 cient for his needs. Every cent of his December salary 
 was already disposed of and was inadequate to redeem 
 certain promises he had made to some of his creditors. 
 
 He came home in the evening wearied beyond 
 measure, sick at heart, and when he opened the door 
 the thought of Alice came to him and added to his sad 
 ness. Life seemed scarcely worth the burdens it imposed. 
 But, on the other side of the door was Marian, and, in 
 her embrace, much of his trouble left him, that is to say, 
 he no longer felt active distress although he was still 
 sore in spirit. 
 
 "Did you see about mother in the papers?" she cried. 
 
 "In the papers?" he queried. "What about?" 
 
 "Why, all about her current topics talks. It s in all 
 the papers, and the telephone s been ringing all day
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 279 
 
 and mother s just gone over to Mrs. Hutchinson and 
 said she ll be back soon, but she just had to go, she had 
 to talk to her about hiring a somebody to attend to 
 everything." 
 
 Hardwick was surprised. Was it possible, after all, 
 that his wife was actually going to be able to make a 
 success of this hare-brained scheme? It couldn t be 
 true. This was just another of her fruitless efforts, 
 with the result this time that their burden of debt 
 would be still further increased. Well, a little more or 
 a little less, what was the difference. Things could not 
 be much worse. He turned to Marian. 
 
 "Well, Mamie, what have you been doing all day?"
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 HARDWICK heard the account of his wife s 
 triumph from her own lips without being 
 much moved thereby. He had no doubt that 
 she was exaggerating both her part in the project and 
 what she called the great public interest in it and her. 
 Strange to say, she did not tell him, even yet, of the 
 financial aspect of the affair; she wanted to wait until 
 she knew exactly the amount she would receive. When 
 he asked her about it shortly before Christmas, she 
 told him that the secretary, whom they had found it 
 necessary to engage, would not likely be able to make 
 a report for several days, and that she could not tell 
 him accurately. 
 
 Really, Mrs. Hardwick was not as much interested 
 in the money she was to receive as might be thought. 
 She was neither accurate nor ready with figures and 
 had only the most indistinct idea of the extent of the 
 possible profit to come to her from her course of talks. 
 She knew, of course, that she was sure to make a very 
 considerable sum of money through them, and, although 
 this gave her great pleasure, it paled almost into 
 insignificance beside the complete satisfaction she felt 
 in what she considered the public acclamation of her 
 extraordinary mentality. She told Hardwick that she 
 
 280
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 281 
 
 did not wish him to spend much for a Christmas 
 present for her in view of his being so short of funds. 
 
 The day before Christmas, the secretary turned over 
 to Mrs. Hardwick over five thousand dollars and a 
 statement to the effect that, after deducting all possible 
 expenses, the course of talks would bring hi a net return 
 of about ten thousand dollars. Mrs. Hardwick was 
 amazed. A return of such magnitude had never entered 
 into her calculations. She was well aware that there was 
 an enormous interest in the course, and attributed that 
 largely to the public desire to learn from her lips the true 
 meaning of the news of the day. She recognized the 
 drawing power of her list of patronesses, but the 
 absurdly high price and the sense of social distinction 
 that each subscriber experienced when she was allotted 
 her tickets did not seem to her the real reasons for the 
 extraordinary success of the venture. 
 
 However, Mrs. Hardwick deposited her money with 
 the greatest satisfaction in the world and, with difficulty, 
 restrained her desire to tell her husband of it on Christ 
 mas eve when he came home for dinner. He was in a 
 gay humor this evening, responding to the spirit of the 
 occasion. He had brought home an armful of packages, 
 buying a number of things at the last minute, candy, 
 books, holly wreaths. For the moment, his worries were 
 gone and only the thought of Alice tempered his joy in 
 the holiday. 
 
 At dinner, however, Mrs. Hardwick talked much of
 
 282 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Alice, with the result that all of them were much 
 depressed, and when, later in the evening, after Marian 
 had gone to bed, they trimmed the Christmas tree 
 together, their usual delight in it was painfully absent. 
 Even Mrs. Hardwick was not talkative for once and 
 altogether it was rather an unhappy Christmas eve. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick had determined on a great surprise 
 for Christmas morning. When they had finished break 
 fast, which proved to be rather a lively meal owing to 
 Marian s joy in her presents, she asked Hardwick to 
 come to the sewing room, where she had a little present 
 for him. Wondering, he followed her, and, when she 
 took a check from her writing table and handed it to 
 him, his amazement at its amount was so great that 
 he was incapable of speech. It was a check for one 
 thousand dollars. Mrs. Hardwick beamed upon him as 
 he stood there silent, his great surprise manifest in his 
 startled expression. 
 
 "Florrie," he said at length, "what does this mean?" 
 
 "It means, my dear Henry, that our financial worries 
 are over. I have already more than enough money to 
 discharge every one of our obligations, and when all 
 of the receipts are hi my hands, I shall have much, 
 much more. I have received a statement from my 
 secretary which informs me that the profits which will 
 finally accrue from my little series of talks will aggregate 
 at least ten thousand dollars." 
 
 It is impossible to describe the magnificence of the
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 283 
 
 air with which she delivered herself of this statement. 
 Self-satisfaction, pride, almost self -worship marked its 
 every syllable. She looked to him for joy, congratula 
 tions, praise. 
 
 But to Hardwick it brought only the sense of unutter 
 able defeat. Instead of giving him joy, it stamped upon 
 him the feeling of incompetence. As he struggled to 
 master these emotions, so that they should not be 
 evident in his demeanor, Mrs. Hardwick improved the 
 opportunity to dilate upon her achievement. 
 
 "I have but one regret in connection with the whole 
 affair," she said, "and that is that I have not sooner 
 turned to account what I may without undue vanity 
 refer to as an unusual talent for leadership. It was made 
 very plain to me, at the meeting of patronesses at Mrs. 
 L. Percival Sedley s house, that I possess ability in 
 this direction much out of the ordinary. As you know, 
 all of the ladies present were members of our most 
 exclusive families, whose names are known not only 
 throughout the length and breadth of this city, but 
 which, I may say, have a significance wherever great 
 wealth and social position are recognized. And these 
 women, accustomed to command, literally sat at my 
 feet and listened to my words with rapt attention, 
 anxious to follow my slighest suggestion. 
 
 "It is but a forerunner of what will happen in the 
 larger gatherings which will attend my talks. Would 
 you believe it, I have literally been besieged ever since
 
 284 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 the news became public property. The telephone called 
 me constantly for several days. Women with whom 
 my acquaintance was so slight that I recalled their 
 names with difficulty craved permission to subscribe 
 to the course. It seems to me that I have always been 
 far too modest. I have, so to speak, hid my light under 
 a bushel . 
 
 "But that day is past. Henceforth I shall turn my 
 undoubted talents to account. This little series of talks 
 is but the beginning of a career which promises not only 
 an adequate return financially, but, what is more, a 
 public recognition which, I do not hesitate to admit, 
 will bring me the greatest delight. I know that it is 
 quite usual to affect to scorn a tribute of this kind, but 
 I look down upon such affectation, it is beneath me." 
 
 Hardwick listened in misery. This then was his 
 reward. A life of hard, unremitting labor which had 
 brought him nothing but debt and worry. He had put 
 forth the best that was in him and now, in middle age, 
 when his faculties were no longer in their prime, he 
 had to take second place to his wife; he had to turn to 
 her to relieve him from the ignominy of constant 
 indebtedness, he must relinquish his position as the sole 
 provider. And he wondered at the freak of fortune 
 which, at one stroke, had put into her hands an amount 
 equal to two years of his salary. 
 
 During the interval between Christmas and the first 
 of the Thursdays upon which Mrs. Hardwick was to
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 285 
 
 begin her series of talks, her conversation, if so one-sided 
 an affair may be thus called, was solely upon this one 
 topic. And, with the constant repetition, Hardwick 
 gradually lost the sense of sharp distress which the 
 first announcement of his wife s great success had 
 brought to him. However, it was still a sore spot in his 
 consciousness and, when it came into his mind, he 
 made a great effort to think of other things. But with 
 the arrival of the first of Mrs. Hardwick s Thursdays, 
 even this soreness had gone; he had become thoroughly 
 accustomed to the new condition. 
 
 Before he left the house that morning, Hardwick 
 had been strictly enjoined by his wife to be present at 
 Wilberforce Hall in the afternoon. She wanted him to 
 witness her triumph. He had demurred at the beginning, 
 claiming that he did not care to absent himself from the 
 office during business hours, but Mrs. Hardwick had 
 scoffed at his protestations and had overridden them 
 completely. In the end, he had given in and had prom 
 ised to be present promptly at three, the hour which 
 had been set. 
 
 There was no trace of nervousness visible in Mrs. 
 Hardwick. She was as sure of herself as though this was 
 to have been her thousandth rather than her first 
 appearance in a large hall before an audience which had 
 been keyed up to a high pitch of expectancy. She had 
 given several days to preparation, using the daily 
 papers and two weeklies, which gave her the information
 
 286 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 which she required. As she had a really prodigious 
 memory and almost perfect self-possession, it was 
 necessary for her to make only the merest notes. With 
 these in her hand, she felt herself fully equipped for 
 the work and was actually ready to ask for questions 
 upon any pertinent subject which might occur to any 
 of her auditors. 
 
 "Now, Henry, my dear," she said, as she accompanied 
 him to the door, "I count upon you to attend promptly. 
 I am particularly anxious to have your view of the 
 manner in which I comport myself. Not that I have any 
 doubt of my ability to handle the situation, but I should 
 like to have your impression." 
 
 "All right," he answered, and, kissing her, went 
 down the street. 
 
 But the thought of his ill fortune persisted. Something 
 was wrong with him, he felt; nothing went right. The 
 last part of the catalogue, that which had been arranged 
 after the responsibility for the prompt finishing of the 
 work had been taken over by Pemberton, did not have 
 the quality of lively interest shown in the earlier pages. 
 He had struggled with them, he had endeavored to 
 maintain his interest, but could not. He could not help 
 feeling that it was no longer his catalogue; his sense of 
 personal achievement, the ambition to make a great 
 personal success were gone. 
 
 However, the work was being pushed by McCabe and 
 there was now no doubt that, save for some extraor-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 287 
 
 dinary misfortune, the book would be finished in 
 time. Hardwick had seen the first forms and knew that 
 the quality of the printing was all that could be expected. 
 
 There was another thing in his mind which gave him 
 almost constant inquietude, and that was the thought 
 of the sheet of McCabe s copy which Miss Henderson 
 had inadvertently put into Ruth s hand. What did Miss 
 Bernstein know? And what did she suspect? He thought 
 over countless expedients to test her but rejected all 
 of them as incriminating. She never came to him 
 without causing him the fear that she was about to 
 speak of the matter. He almost wished she would do 
 so, he felt it would be a blessed relief. 
 
 It was almost constantly present in Ruth s mind 
 also. There was no one with whom she felt free to 
 discuss the matter, and, consequently, it haunted her 
 thought, a spectre that would not down. She felt that 
 she was assuming a responsibility by silence which was 
 beyond her. Having no doubt whatever of Hardwick s 
 guilt, she felt that he was unworthy to continue to 
 hold his position, and yet she could not bring herself 
 to talk of the matter to Pemberton. She knew well 
 what that would mean; a searching examination into 
 the details of the affair and then, the truth once estab 
 lished, the ruthless dismissal of Hardwick in such a 
 manner that it would be practically impossible for him 
 to hold any position of trust and responsibility in the 
 community.
 
 288 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 Finally, she decided that she would go to Hardwick 
 himself at some favorable opportunity and ask him 
 point blank whether her conviction of his guilt was 
 Justified. If he admitted it, she would advise him to 
 resign his position and would promise her silence on 
 the matter forever. If he denied it, well she would see. 
 But she felt that she must speak of it to someone and 
 this seemed the only possible course. 
 
 It appeared, however, that the favorable opportunity 
 which she had specified to herself never would come. 
 Day after day she came to the office determined to 
 make the opportunity if necessary, but on each day 
 went home without having spoken. 
 
 The opportunity she sought came to her on this 
 third of January immediately after her return from her 
 lunch at quarter of two. 
 
 Hardwick was sitting at his desk when Ruth came in 
 from lunch. The office was unusually quiet, most of the 
 clerks were engaged at a considerable distance from 
 Hardwick s desk, certainly out of earshot. This was 
 Ruth s opportunity and she embraced it. 
 
 She was extremely nervous as she came over to him. 
 The beating of her heart was painfully perceptible and 
 she wondered whether the choking sensation that was 
 upon her would permit speech. Hardwick was not 
 aware of her presence until she actually stood by his 
 chair, but, at the first sound of her voice, he was seized 
 with terror. He knew that she was going to speak at
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 289 
 
 last, and he strove vainly to master his inward agitation 
 as she asked him: 
 
 "May I speak to you for a few minutes, Mr. Hard- 
 wick?" she began. Never had she been so excited. She 
 was struck by fright at her own temerity. She saw that 
 her action might lay her open to a most painful rebuff 
 and wished she had not begun. But the thought of 
 withdrawing did not occur to her. 
 
 "Certainly," said Hardwick in a tone which he tried 
 to make unconcerned. Whether he was successful or 
 not made no difference, Ruth was far too agitated to 
 observe it. 
 
 "There s a matter which has been worrying me for 
 weeks and I feel I must speak to you about it." As she 
 spoke, she grew somewhat calmer, but Hardwick s 
 trouble continued to increase. He said nothing, so she 
 went on: 
 
 "You may think it s none of my business, but please 
 hear me out. I must talk to someone about the matter 
 and I m sure you ll agree that it will be far better for 
 me to discuss it with you than with anyone else." She 
 paused and looked at him. 
 
 "Go on," he said huskily. Oh! Would she never get 
 down to the real thing? What was the use of all of these 
 preliminaries? 
 
 "Some weeks ago Miss Henderson put in my hands a 
 piece of advertising copy which I am sure she wrote for 
 you. It was purely unintentional on her part, a mistake,
 
 290 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 for she was much confused when I asked her what it 
 was, and took it away without giving me any explana 
 tion." She paused again, at a loss just how to proceed. 
 She was silent only for a second, but in that moment 
 she saw the intense suffering which she was causing 
 Hardwick. He looked at her fixedly, his face white, his 
 lips bloodless under the pressure he exerted in his 
 struggle to maintain his composure. 
 
 "Mr. Hardwick," Ruth resumed at length, "you 
 wrote that advertising copy for Mr. McCabe and that 
 was why you were willing to let him bid, and allowed 
 him to make a substitution in the paper item, and 
 wouldn t let the other printers revise their bids. You 
 wrote that stuff for him to justify you in taking money 
 from him, didn t you?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Hardwick. He was so utterly crushed 
 that he did not even wonder how she had arrived at 
 her conclusion. But one thought was in his mind now. 
 In some way he must justify himself in her eyes. She 
 had practically told him that she had spoken to no one 
 about the matter and, in some obscure way, Hardwick 
 knew that she spoke the truth. 
 
 "Yes," said Hardwick again after a momentary pause. 
 "It s all true, but it isn t quite as bad as it sounds when 
 you say it." He forced himself to hold to a dignified 
 calmness, but in him his heart seemed to be beating 
 furiously. Oh, if only he could disappear, if he could but 
 be blotted out. Flight was the one thing which seemed
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 291 
 
 possible, but, nevertheless, he was chained there by 
 something stronger than this instinct, compelled to 
 make an attempt to justify himself although he knew 
 in advance that it was useless. 
 
 "Will you listen to my explanation?" he asked. Ruth 
 looked at him in pity. Never had she seen greater 
 misery, and suddenly she was engulfed by a great wave 
 of sympathy for him. Oh! she thought, how hard it is 
 to know what to do. In her thought it had seemed so 
 easy to decide between right and wrong; it was quite 
 a simple matter to tell him to resign his position, but 
 now it was altogether different. She hastened to reply, 
 making her tone as reassuring as she knew how: 
 
 "Why, certainly, Mr. Hardwick." 
 
 Hardwick felt the sympathy she had aimed to 
 express and quickly responded to it. He was in no doubt 
 now as to what to say. He would tell her the whole 
 transaction, omitting nothing, and then offer to resign. 
 He was just about to begin when there was a ring of the 
 telephone on Ruth s desk. She went over and picked up 
 the receiver. 
 
 "Miss Bernstein speaking," he heard her say. And 
 then, after a short pause, "Tell him I ll come imme 
 diately." 
 
 She turned to Hardwick, "Mr. Pemberton wishes to 
 see me at once. Will you wait here until I return?" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, and she left.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 A soon as Ruth entered Pemberton s office he 
 picked up his telephone and told the operator 
 he was not to be disturbed. This took but a 
 second and the receiver was already back on its hook 
 when Ruth had closed the door behind her. 
 
 "Sit down, please," he said. "I want to have a serious 
 talk with you." 
 
 Ruth, who was still much agitated, took a chair and 
 looked at him expectantly. She did not trust her voice. 
 Anyone who knew her would have seen instantly that 
 she was not as usual, but Pemberton was too intent 
 upon his own concerns for the moment to perceive the 
 alteration in her demeanor. His glance was directed at 
 her, but he did not see her, that is, he saw she was 
 there, but no more. 
 
 At length he began to speak very slowly. 
 
 "Ruth," he said, "I know I shouldn t discuss the 
 matter I have on my mind here now, but I really have 
 no choice. I have to give a final decision this afternoon 
 on a matter which depends on you. So I ask your 
 pardon in advance, and hope you will hear me out." 
 His manner was extraordinarily gentle. Never had she 
 seen him so subdued, so bent upon holding himself in 
 hand. As she made no answer, he went on. 
 
 "I have been asked to become one of the managers 
 292
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 293 
 
 of the Red Cross in France. Over there, there are 
 enormous distributions of supplies to be made. It is an 
 immense undertaking and they are short of the most 
 important factor, executives of the right sort. Ordinary 
 men are plentiful, they can get all they want of them. 
 But the kind of men they want are scarce. In the first 
 place they don t grow on every bush, and even when 
 they find one that could fill the bill, he isn t often 
 available." He paused and looked at her, and this time, 
 trying to read the impression his words were making 
 upon her, noted her agitation for the first time and 
 promptly set it down to the effect of his communication. 
 
 "For some time," he continued, "the Red Cross 
 people have been after me. I ve always turned them 
 down for a reason that you re no stranger to. Not that 
 I wouldn t like to have the job, it s the sort of thing I 
 know I could do, and, what s more, it s as important as 
 anything in winning the war. You know the way I 
 feel about the whole business, particularly about 
 slackers. I never would care to go in, at my age, for 
 real soldiering. Of course, I could go into a training 
 camp and come out with a commission. But that s no 
 way for me to help. I ve got too good a head to waste 
 it in taking orders from men who don t know anything. 
 
 "Anybody can be a lieutenant or a captain or a 
 major, as I see it. But there aren t many who can 
 manage a big organization and a half trained one at 
 that in one of the biggest enterprises that has ever 
 been attempted."
 
 294 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 As he continued to speak, Ruth gradually overcame 
 her perturbation, due to her absorption in what he 
 had to say. It was always like this when he spoke to 
 her. She was simply carried away by him. And now, 
 although she had exacted his promise not to go away, 
 she saw strong reasons for his going; she visualized him 
 in the management of the Red Cross overseas, bringing 
 order out of chaos, producing efficiency with incom 
 petent helpers. As it grew upon her, she saw what was 
 coming, the call for the decision she did not wish to 
 make, and again she was agitated, but in a different 
 way. 
 
 "This morning," Pemberton continued, "they were 
 here again and almost begged me to accept. They put 
 before me every possible inducement they could think 
 of. It was with great difficulty that I avoided giving 
 them a final answer, all I could succeed in doing with 
 them was to put them off until this afternoon." 
 
 He stopped short this time, hoping that she would say 
 something that would help him to go on. In view of his 
 reiterated promise to her, he felt uncomfortable in 
 the prospect of breaking it. But break it he felt he must 
 and, as Ruth showed no disposition to talk, he went on: 
 
 "Ruth, I must decide now. We must decide now. I 
 know I promised you to wait a year for your answer, 
 and, under ordinary circumstances, I would do it. 
 But this is different. Outside of you this is the most 
 important thing that s ever come to me. I don t mean
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 295 
 
 in a business way or anything like that. You know what 
 I mean, don t you?" 
 
 Ruth nodded her understanding. Slight as it was, it 
 was the first encouragement she had given him, and he 
 went on somewhat more easily. 
 
 "I want you to free me from my promise, and let me 
 ask for my answer now. You must know it to-day as 
 well as you ever can. Tell me, Ruth?" He got up from 
 his chair and walked over to her, as though his proximity 
 would help bring the answer he craved. 
 
 She looked up at him, an appealing expression in her 
 face. 
 
 "Please sit down," she said. "Let me think." 
 
 He obeyed her and again sat at his desk, while she 
 sat there silent, looking down. For several seconds 
 they remained thus without motion, each busy with 
 thought. But the silence weighed upon him, doubt was 
 intolerable and he wished to press the decision, be it 
 what it might. 
 
 "Ruth," he began. 
 
 "Please don t talk, Fred," she answered without 
 looking up. "You must let me think." 
 
 And again there was silence. 
 
 Never had Ruth known such trouble. Within her 
 was a struggle of powerful emotions. On the one hand, 
 her undoubted love for this man, which had grown 
 within her almost insidiously, despite the quiescence 
 to which it had been compelled by the exercise of her
 
 296 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 will, and, on the other, there was her fear of him, and 
 her even greater fear of herself. She knew that, of the 
 two, he must always be the master, that her very passion 
 for him would abet the dominance which his strong 
 personality gave him. And Ruth had always placed 
 great emphasis upon her independence. She had always 
 wanted to be and, in fact, had always been, self- 
 sufficient. With him, however, there could be no inde 
 pendence; she would be his, his thing to do with as he 
 pleased, and she knew, the decision once made, the ice 
 once broken, that her love would forge even stronger 
 fetters to bind her more securely. 
 
 And then there was Mrs. Bernstein. She saw now 
 clearly that it must be one or the other. She knew the 
 utter incompatibility between Pemberton and her 
 mother. It would never be possible for them to meet 
 continuously in peace in the narrow confines of one 
 household. All along she had deceived herself in this 
 regard; as long as she might postpone the final decision, 
 she had deluded herself in the belief that time would 
 bring them to a basis of understanding if not affection. 
 
 For more than a minute she sat in silence, vainly 
 trying to weigh these opposing emotions. But there was 
 no common basis for their appraisal; they persisted, 
 each in its own way, irreconcilable, neither capable of 
 entering into the domain of the other. And at last, only 
 doubt was established, the sort of doubt which com 
 pelled a negative answer, a doubt which produced the
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 297 
 
 certainty of the misery of two rather than the misery of 
 one. And in this doubt, in the impossibility of realizing 
 the mandate of her body, which claimed this man, 
 without the sacrifice of her mother s love, as it appeared 
 to her, the silence became intolerable to her and she 
 broke it. 
 
 "Fred," she said slowly, looking up at him. "I release 
 you from your promise, but " she could not go on. 
 
 The sound of her voice with an accent which pro 
 claimed not only her love for him, but also the intense 
 suffering she underwent, aroused in him a passion which 
 threatened to break every bond. He looked at her and 
 saw tears in her eyes, and an almost uncontrollable 
 impulse seized him, urging him to go to her and take 
 her in his arms, but he repressed it and awaited her 
 further word. 
 
 "I cannot marry you," she said at length. "I see now 
 that it is impossible, we would not be happy. We " 
 
 "Ruth," he cried, "what do you mean? I would 
 make you the happiest woman in the world. There is 
 nothing I wouldn t do for you. Your slightest wish would 
 be my law. And, as for me, with you as my wife there 
 could be no unhappiness, it simply couldn t exist. 
 Listen to me. You are the only woman in the world 
 who ever meant anything at all to me. I thought at 
 one time that I hated women, they seemed to be out 
 of place in the world, I had no sympathy with their 
 views, their interests, their ways. But you, Ruth, are
 
 298 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 everything to me. If you ll but say the word, I ll turn 
 down this proposition so flat that they won t have a 
 single come-back. I ll do whatever you say. I ll wait 
 for you, I ll do anything." He rose from his chair and 
 would have come over to her, but she motioned him to 
 stay away and he again sat down. 
 
 "No, Fred," she said slowly, the tears still in her 
 eyes, "I cannot say the word. I was wrong, I should 
 never have allowed you to hope. Take this position 
 and forget that you ever knew me. It will be better 
 for you to go away and to have this great, interesting 
 work to do, it will make it easier for you to forget." 
 
 "Ruth," he cried, "you don t mean it. You can t 
 mean it. You know you love me; you must know that 
 I can make you happy. You must say yes ." And he 
 held out his arms to her. 
 
 But she would not look at him and again repeated 
 her refusal. 
 
 "No," she said. "You would not make me happy. The 
 very truth of my love for you would make me unhappy. 
 I must be free, I must go on with my life as it is, I 
 cannot help it." 
 
 "You are talking nonsense," he said, and anger was 
 evident in his voice. 
 
 "No, Fred," she replied. "It isn t nonsense. I ve 
 thought it all out and I know what I must do. I cannot 
 marry you." 
 
 He listened to her in amazement. Was it possible that
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 299 
 
 he was to be defeated in this, the greatest ambition of 
 his life? He, defeated; he, before whom everyone, 
 everything had always yielded. He could not believe it, 
 and yet she sat before him unshaken in her resolution, 
 she, a mere girl in his eyes, withstanding all of his 
 efforts to persuade her. His anger gained upon him, and 
 he struggled to control it as he asked in a voice almost 
 tremulous: 
 
 "Ruth, you don t mean that this is your final de 
 cision?" 
 
 "Yes, Fred," she answered, her head still bowed, 
 "it is." 
 
 "Very well then," he said in a voice which he 
 attempted to make cold, but which showed plainly the 
 inward heat which consumed him, "I see I have been 
 mistaken in you after all. I thought you were a real 
 woman, one with real feeling and not a machine. You re 
 a good clerk, the best clerk I ve ever met, I ll say that, 
 and I suppose you re a good housekeeper and all that 
 sort of thing. You re smart enough to do anything you 
 put your hand to, but you re only a machine after all. 
 You re one of these new women, the sexless kind, who 
 think that they re the real saviours of the world. They 
 look down on marriage as something contemptible. 
 That s the kind of a woman you are. You have a great 
 idea of your importance, but actually, a hundred of 
 you aren t worth one simple girl who doesn t know 
 anything except that when she loves a man nothing
 
 300 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 else counts, and she comes to him knowing that she ll 
 find her happiness in him and that her real business in 
 life is to be a wife and a mother. 
 
 "But you," he continued, and his anger lent a wither 
 ing contempt to his tone, "you are superior to this kind 
 of woman. You have brains and you pervert them. You 
 think that business is your vocation. You make yourself 
 believe that you re indispensable in the business world. 
 You ve educated yourself to the belief that you should 
 look down upon your natural impulses and you ve 
 succeeded to the point where there s nothing left but 
 the mere shell of a woman, the outside, with nothing 
 behind it but a sexless creature who doesn t know what 
 love really is; who has no conception of the beauty of 
 motherhood a barren, empty husk." 
 
 He rose from his desk and walked up and down the 
 office for a moment, and then suddenly sat down again. 
 
 Ruth had heard him begin with surprise and listened 
 to him as he continued in ever growing amazement. 
 Finally, anger and resentment gained her as well, and, 
 although she made a valiant effort to restrain them, 
 her voice as she answered him was pitched high, a 
 thing utterly unusual with her. 
 
 "I shan t attempt to answer you," she began, speak 
 ing very rapidly. "There is no use defending myself. 
 Perhaps it s even better that you should think of me 
 as you say. It s funny though that you, of all men, 
 should call me a machine, you, who have always gone
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 301 
 
 on your way relentlessly, crushing everybody and 
 everything which opposed you. You re the machine, not 
 the sexless thing you called me, but a machine for all 
 that. All of the finer human qualities are strangers to 
 you. You re honest and truthful, and, according to your 
 way of looking at things, just. But generosity, and 
 gentleness, and charity are only names to you the 
 names of amiable weaknesses of others. You say you 
 never were interested in any woman until you met me. 
 Did you ever stop to think why this was so? Well, 
 I ll tell you. It s because you were afraid of them; you 
 felt you couldn t trust them. You put everything on 
 the basis of self-interest, and you couldn t see where 
 that came into relations with the other sex. Everything 
 with you is judged by the same standard; what are 
 you going to get out of it, or what is the other fellow 
 going to get. If you had any sense of humor, and God 
 knows you haven t, you d see that all of your calcula 
 tion isn t worth the trouble it takes; you d see that the 
 people you come into contact with simply have to do 
 what you want because you re self-willed and strong; 
 stronger, much stronger than they are." She paused 
 for breath, her bosom heaving, while he sat there, 
 silent, looking at her intently with wonder in his eyes. 
 She looked at him in surprise; never before had she 
 seen him so cast-down and, even in the excitement of 
 her angry resentment, she began to feel pity for him, 
 even while she went on with her denunciation. Although
 
 302 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 moved by this pity to mitigate the severity of her 
 arraignment, she felt impelled to continue, now that 
 she had begun, and to continue to the bitter end. 
 
 "And then I came into your life and for once you 
 found a woman whom you could trust, a woman whom 
 you wanted for yourself. What was it? Do you know 
 what it was that made you want her, that made you 
 trust her? I don t doubt that you figured it all out to 
 your own satisfaction. But can you tell me what your 
 calculation is worth? When you were all through with 
 it, did you know any more than when you began? Of 
 course not. But you wouldn t admit it. You are too 
 proud, too vain to admit that there s anything bigger 
 and stronger than you. 
 
 "And did you think of me? Did you consider my part 
 of the bargain? Never. You took that for granted. You 
 wanted me, and that was enough. My happiness was to 
 be a matter of course because you felt that marrying 
 me was necessary to your happiness. Just a moment ago 
 you said that you would do anything for me, and I 
 believe you would, now, when you want me and 
 haven t got me. But if I were married to you, you d do 
 anything for me that I wanted, provided it was some 
 thing you were satisfied to have me want. You can t 
 help it, that s what you are, it s the way you were made. 
 Why, you think if you bad me, you d be happy. That s 
 foolish. Happiness doesn t come that way. You ll 
 never be happy, because it isn t in you."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 303 
 
 Again she paused for breath, but her mounting 
 excitement would not permit her to stop for more than 
 a moment. 
 
 "Did you ever stop to consider me? Did you ever 
 think of me as a person apart from you? Did you ever 
 consider that I had an individuality apart from your 
 vision of me as your wife? Did you ever think what my 
 love for you would bring into my life? Did it occur to 
 you that that love would make me unhappy instead of 
 happy? No, for you don t think that way. That night, 
 on the way home from the theatre, when you kissed me, 
 when you forced me to show you what I was bent on 
 concealing, did you think of my part, of the reasons 
 which made me crush down my love for you so that I 
 might not forget what I owed to my sense of duty? No, 
 you were thinking only of yourself, you wanted me and 
 I was unwatchful, so you took me unawares. You did 
 not act on reason then, you did not calculate, you just 
 took me and " She could not go on, her excitement 
 had reached the point of hysteria and she buried her 
 face in her hands, weeping convulsively, all control gone. 
 
 In a moment he was by her side, his hand on her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Come, Ruth," he said gently, and would have 
 added more but knew not what to say. His touch, 
 however, was potent, not to make her calm, but to break 
 down finally the barrier of her reserve which had so 
 long withstood him. Punctuated by sobs, she went on:
 
 304 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Oh! I love you. I do love you and I can t give you 
 up. I don t care what happens; I don t care what you 
 do to me, I love you and I won t give you up." 
 
 In her excitement she seized his hand and covered 
 it with kisses. Gently, he disengaged it, and, almost 
 lifting her to her feet, took both of her hands Jn his. 
 
 "Look at me, Ruth," he said. 
 
 "Oh! What must you think of me!" she cried, her 
 head still bowed, her body still shaken by sobs. 
 
 "You know what I think of you," he said gravely, 
 and then went on, "Ruth, did you mean what you said 
 just now?" 
 
 But she did not answer. 
 
 "Ruth," he said again, "did you mean what you 
 have just said? I know you were terribly excited and 
 perhaps you did not know just what you were saying. 
 Tell me, it means everything to me." His tone was one 
 of infinite pleading. 
 
 No word came from her. For a brief moment she stood 
 there, her head bowed, her hands in his, and then, 
 disengaging them, she placed her arms about his neck 
 and laid her head on his shoulder. 
 
 "Oh! Fred, I love you," was all she said. 
 
 For fully a minute they stood thus and then they 
 kissed; a long, rapturous kiss that set the seal of finality 
 upon their plighted troth. And then, suddenly, they 
 simultaneously remembered that they were in a business 
 office and withdrew from each other s embrace. There
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 305 
 
 was no need of explanation. Each forgot the bitter 
 arraignment of the other of but a few minutes earlier. 
 
 Ruth, in her new found certainty, was almost per 
 fectly happy. Only the least bit of anxiety at the 
 prospect of breaking the news to her mother tempered 
 what would have been perfect bliss. 
 
 They resumed their chairs and discussed their plans 
 for the future at great length. Suddenly, she remem 
 bered that she had told Hardwick to wait for her. 
 
 "What time is it?" she asked. 
 
 He looked at his watch. 
 
 "Ten minutes to four." 
 
 "Oh! Lord," she cried. "Have I been here two hours? 
 I told Mr. Hardwick I would be back in a few minutes. 
 I must run." 
 
 "Wait a minute," he said. "Am I to come up to 
 night?" 
 
 "Surely!" she cried, and fled.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 IT came into Hardwick s mind, Immediately after 
 Ruth had left him, to put on his hat and coat and 
 go away, out of the office, out of the city, any 
 where that might save him from ever again seeing 
 anyone whom he had ever known. It was but a momen 
 tary impulse, dismissed almost as soon as it appeared, 
 but it was a most natural one. 
 
 He fancied that he was forever disgraced. The one 
 thing which he felt he had always possessed was gone, 
 his good name, the respect to which he had always felt 
 entitled. Ruth s accusation appeared to him to be that 
 of the whole world, it seemed as though the finger of 
 public scorn was pointed at him, and that he cowered 
 under it, guilty, convicted of petty theft. 
 
 As he anxiously awaited her return, he began to 
 phrase his explanation in his mind. And as he went on 
 with it, he readily found excuses, nay, reasons to 
 justify his action. After all, what had he done? He had 
 admitted McCabe to competition for the catalogue, 
 through which the company would save one thousand 
 dollars. He told himself that he had not been led to do 
 it by reason of McCabe s giving him the opportunity to 
 earn a little money on the side. That had nothing to do 
 with it; the two things had merely coincided in point 
 of time. There was no intrinsic wrong in his using his 
 
 306
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 307 
 
 own leisure for the purpose of supplementing his 
 income, certainly not when the work he did in no way 
 interfered with the earnings or prestige of his employer. 
 His reason for not re-opening the competition was per 
 fectly good; there was no time to lose, they were already 
 late in awarding the contract for printing. 
 
 Gradually, with thoughts like these, his aplomb 
 returned and he wished for Ruth s coming so that he 
 might justify himself in her eyes. He knew instinctively 
 that, were she satisfied, the matter would be dropped. 
 Had she not told him that he was the only one to whom 
 she felt she could speak about the matter? And this 
 could only mean that she had kept her own counsel, 
 and, once she was convinced of his perfect honesty in 
 the transaction, would continue to do so. 
 
 But the minutes went by and she did not return. He 
 became restless and, in the effort to remain unper 
 turbed, tried to busy himself with some unfinished work 
 on his desk. The effort was a vain one, however, and 
 presently he laid the papers he was reading to one side. 
 He could think of but one thing and that was how he 
 should justify himself in Ruth s eyes. 
 
 And as the subject turned and turned again hi his 
 mind, the weaknesses of his defense became more and 
 more apparent. In imagination he could see the cool 
 scrutiny in her eyes, as she listened to him; he could 
 almost phrase her sharp, succinct questions which would 
 riddle his show of justification. He saw that it was
 
 308 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 useless, he had deceived only himself; he could never 
 hope to deceive her. He was a ruined man, there was 
 nothing left. 
 
 Literally in agony, he sat at his desk suffering the 
 deepest despair he had ever known. All of his life he had 
 vacillated between the extremes of hope and despond 
 ency, the former largely in the majority, but now he 
 sounded a greater depth than ever. There seemed no way 
 out, no possible means for him to re-establish hope, no 
 basis for his future self-respect. 
 
 And then, suddenly, he laughed at himself. Why 
 should he fear this girl s opinion? Let her tell Pemberton 
 if she wished, she might tell the whole world. At most 
 it was a trifling, venial offense, if it were really an 
 offense at all. Practical men would laugh at it. Let her 
 come back then and he would make his explanation. 
 If it satisfied her, well and good. If not, he would defy 
 her and Pemberton, too. This wasn t the only job in 
 the world. 
 
 He got up and walked about the office pretending to 
 be looking for something so that his restlessness might 
 not be noticed by the clerks in the room. He pulled 
 out his watch and saw that it was after half-past two. 
 
 Suddenly he remembered his promise to his wife to 
 attend her talk at three o clock, and told himself that 
 he would await Ruth s return no longer than quarter 
 to three. 
 
 But when quarter to three came without her reappear-
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 309 
 
 ance, he did not go, and, what was now plainly apparent 
 to him, he would not go. He must see her, he must 
 explain the whole matter to her so that he might be 
 sure that she would tell no one, that the secret would be 
 locked safely in her bosom. 
 
 And as the minutes slipped by, he thought of his past 
 experience, his change from one occupation to another, 
 always with the hope of an improvement which he 
 never was able to realize. Always had he been the 
 victim of circumstances, never their master. His whole 
 career had been a series of disappointments; either the 
 man upon whom he had counted failed him or the 
 opportunity he looked for was lacking. 
 
 Was it ill luck solely? Was it possible that so long, 
 so constant a succession of failures could be purely 
 fortuitous? It did not seem possible, and yet, could 
 there be any other reason? If there was, it was not 
 due to any failing of his, of that he was sure. It was 
 true that there had been occasional lapses, none, 
 however, of a serious nature, in which he may not 
 have taken the best advantage of an offered oppor 
 tunity, but that was all. 
 
 But was it? Could he be mistaken and ignorant of 
 the truth? Ignorant or ignoring, did it matter which? 
 Ah! Yes, it did, and was there really something in him 
 which he had persistently ignored, which he had rigor 
 ously avoided recognizing? 
 
 And the minutes still slipped by as he sat at his desk,
 
 310 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 now calm, but with the calmness of settled despair. 
 One by one, he reviewed his failures, his misfortunes, 
 he had been wont to call them, but now they stood out 
 in a clearer light. They were misfortunes, it was true, 
 but they were those which come persistently only to 
 the weak in spirit, those who shrink from the battle and 
 go into action with defeat in their hearts. 
 
 Bitterly he went over his more recent experience, 
 that with his present employer, beginning with his 
 first interview with Pemberton. What was it that made 
 him cringe before him? Was it that Pemberton had a 
 better mind; that he was quicker to see his interest, 
 more agile? No, for even in that interview Hardwick 
 had known just what Pemberton was doing and why 
 he was doing it. Why then had he allowed himself to 
 be put upon if he was aware of the tactics of the other? 
 How could he have maintained his self-respect, and he 
 had retained it, if he was willing to come out of that 
 negotiation docile, a willing subject to the imposed 
 force of Pemberton? He remembered that all of his 
 readiness, his wit had been employed to justify his 
 acquiescence on the ground of the superiority of his 
 opponent and his own needs. 
 
 Why had he not opposed him? Why had he not 
 insisted on his value and spurned the contemptible 
 offer which he had so cravenly accepted? Why? Why? 
 Was it fear? Fear of what? Certainly not personal 
 violence. That would be ridiculous. In that respect, he
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 311 
 
 knew instinctively that he was the equal of any man. 
 But perhaps it was another kind of fear, the fear of self- 
 consciousness, the fear of the unexpressed opinion of 
 those with whom he came into contact, which held his 
 tongue still when they ruthlessly disposed of his fortunes, 
 rather than have them think him deficient in some 
 respect, he couldn t think what. No, that wasn t it 
 either, although he felt that he had often been guilty of 
 omission to press his recognized interests for this poor 
 reason. 
 
 It was not only Pemberton. Albright and many others 
 had so used him, had set his concerns to one side in 
 his own presence in order to push their own. Even 
 McCabe, he now saw clearly, had used him. All of them 
 had compelled his silence, his acceptance of what they 
 were willing to yield while they took what they wanted 
 for themselves. 
 
 As he turned these bitter thoughts in his mind, he 
 again took out his watch and noted that it was after 
 three o clock. Well, he would wait, he would learn 
 what the immediate future held for him. He no longer 
 wondered what detained Ruth, he was interested so 
 deeply in his introspection. 
 
 What was it then that gave these men the mastery 
 over him? In the case of Pendleton, in the advertising 
 agency, he saw now most distinctly that, had he 
 insisted on his rights, he would have carried his point. 
 But he had allowed Pendleton to anger him, although
 
 312 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 he knew full well that that was Pendleton s object, and 
 in the end had done exactly what was wanted of him, 
 made the offer of his resignation. 
 
 Could it be that he was weaker than they, not weaker 
 in intellect, but less forceful, weaker in will? Of course, 
 of any two men, one must be the stronger; one of the 
 two must be able to impose his will on the other, by 
 some process completely inscrutable, some power 
 inherent hi its possessor, which came to him naturally 
 and was not the result of his own effort, like the shape 
 of one s hand. 
 
 But then if, of any two men, one must be the stronger, 
 would it not be likely that the weaker, when he was one 
 of another couple, might be the stronger? And the 
 stronger in the first couple might be the weaker in a 
 third. 
 
 However, it seemed to Hardwick, as he reviewed one 
 experience after another, that he was always the 
 weaker, that it was always his will that yielded before 
 the superior power of the other. Could it be then that 
 he was not fit to cope with other men in the struggle 
 for place and wealth; that he was invariably doomed to 
 defeat, no matter what amount of thought and effort 
 he might put into the fight? 
 
 And this weakness was not confined to negativing 
 his chance of success when his ambition, his desires 
 were pitted against those of other men. It went further, 
 it made sustained effort in any direction impossible.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 313 
 
 Just to go back over his most recent history, was it 
 not true that, after his first advertising campaign for 
 the Prescott Company, the success of which was golden 
 in promise for his future, he relapsed into a state in 
 which lively effort seemed impossible? And after the 
 first start of the new catalogue, had his interest not 
 flagged? He remembered now that always he had been 
 like this, and he remembered, too, that it had been 
 his wont to consider it leniently as appropriate to the 
 temperamental character ascribed to creative artists. 
 
 He saw the truth clearly now. No longer could he 
 delude himself with phrases, the day was past when he 
 might accept self-justification at the price of poor 
 excuses. The humiliating truth, bitter as it was, stood 
 before him in sharp outline, bare and utterly convincing. 
 
 He was a failure. He was neither competent as a 
 business man nor as an artist. All of his life he had 
 indulged in the delusion that he was a man of affairs, 
 equal in ability to any other, lacking only the oppor 
 tunity to prove his quality. It mattered not whether 
 it was his own fault or was born in him, the fact was 
 there, inexpugnable, unassailable. 
 
 And there was no basis upon which to hope for any 
 betterment in the future. He would always be a failure; 
 he would always sow, but never reap. If he were to 
 contend to-day, now, with Pemberton, the end would 
 surely be his defeat. 
 
 And utter despondency held him. He saw before him,
 
 314 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 for the rest of his life, the continuous ordeal of Sisyphus. 
 Always must he begin over again after each new defeat 
 to face defeat again and still defeat. 
 
 What was the use of further effort? Could he even 
 make the effort, knowing that it was foredoomed to 
 failure? Would it not be better to end it all, to do away 
 with himself, and thus remove forever, in this culminat 
 ing confession of supreme incompetence, the pain of 
 ever recurring failure? 
 
 No longer did he note the passage of time as he sat 
 there, his head bowed over his desk in an anguish of 
 spirit such as he had never imagined could be the por 
 tion of any man. 
 
 With the final recognition of his inherent inca 
 pability, with the tragedy of his utter self-revelation, 
 his every interest vanished and there was nothing left 
 but an inflamed sensibility to excruciating pain. No 
 longer did he think, no longer did he probe his wound, 
 he simply suffered. 
 
 And then Ruth returned and stood before him, a 
 Ruth joyous, transfigured, such as he had never 
 known. But he did not perceive the change in her. All 
 he saw was his questioner, and the instinct of self- 
 preservation leaped into action. He saw she was there 
 and he hastened to speak. He scarcely heard her say: 
 
 "Oh! Mr. Hard wick, I m so sorry I ve kept you 
 waiting. Mr. Pemberton had a very important matter 
 to discuss with me and I lost all track of time."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 315 
 
 "I ve been thinking over what we were talking about," 
 he began, scarcely conscious of her words. "I want to 
 explain my side of it and then, if you can t see it the 
 way I do, I suppose the only thing to do will be for me 
 to offer my resignation." 
 
 As he spoke, his courage returned in part and he 
 looked at her searchingly to gauge the effect of what he 
 had said. What he saw utterly surprised him. Instead 
 of the reserved woman of affairs who, but two hours 
 before, had charged him with a serious breach of busi 
 ness ethics, he saw before him a smiling girl, joyful, 
 filled with the zest of life at its highest. 
 
 "Oh! Mr. Hardwick," she said gaily, let s not say 
 any more about that matter. I ve thought of it since I 
 spoke to you, and I believe we had better forget it." 
 
 "But Miss Bernstein," he answered, bewildered, with 
 a relief that entered into his every fibre, "I can t let 
 the matter rest that way. I couldn t see you every day, 
 and" 
 
 "But you won t see me every day," she said with 
 wonderful cheerfulness, "I m not going to remain here. 
 I m giving up this position in a few days. I m going to 
 retire to private life." 
 
 "What s that?" he said in great surprise. "Did you 
 say you were leaving?" 
 
 "Yes," she answered, smiling. "I m going in a few 
 days. Just as soon as you can find someone to take up 
 my work."
 
 316 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 "Well, this is a great surprise," he said, very much 
 interested, wishing that she would give him some 
 opportunity to ask the reasons for her leaving. But she 
 did not, and, instead, gave him a new shock. 
 
 "Mr. Pemberton is leaving, too," she said. 
 
 "Pemberton! Leaving?" he gasped. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Pemberton is going to France in a few days. 
 So you needn t consider him either. Just forget it, 
 please, and above all, forget that I ever bothered you 
 about it." 
 
 "Very well," he said. "I don t understand what has 
 changed your mind, but if you are perfectly sure " 
 He hesitated, and Ruth finished the sentence, although 
 he did not understand her meaning. 
 
 "I m sure," she said, "sure at last," and left him. 
 
 He watched her go to her desk and set to work and 
 then, suddenly, the thought of his promise to his wife 
 came to him. He looked at his watch, it was four o clock. 
 
 "I m going for the day," he said to Ruth, who looked 
 up at the sound of his voice. Picking up his coat and 
 hat, he came over to her desk, and added: 
 
 "You know Mrs. Hardwick is giving the first of a 
 series of talks at Wilberforce Hall this afternoon and 
 I promised I d look in." 
 
 "Yes," answered Ruth, "mother is going. I hope it 
 will be a great success." 
 
 "Thank you," he said, and left the office. 
 
 As he hurried out of the building, he was conscious
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 317 
 
 of a buoyancy, a youthful energy that seemed to him 
 to give the lie utterly to his recent dismal thoughts. As 
 he hurried down the street he saw an empty taxicab, 
 hailed it and was driven rapidly to Wilberforce Hall.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 THE bitter cold of this January day made the 
 warmth and coziness of Wilberforce Hall all 
 the more grateful to Hardwick, as he entered 
 and looked in vain for a seat. The term coziness may 
 seem out of place in the description of a hall large 
 enough to seat nearly a thousand people. To Hardwick, 
 however, as he looked over the closely packed audi 
 torium, and the stage upon which his wife stood, 
 backed by a double row of occupied chairs, there came 
 the sense of intimate comfort to which the word applies. 
 Almost the whole of the audience was composed of 
 women, the few men scattered among them sank into 
 insignificance. As Hardwick took in the picture that 
 met his eyes, his impression was that of a mass of 
 extremely well dressed women, and he was conscious 
 of a mixture of perfumes, indefinite because of the 
 medley of many kinds, and the decided odor of furs. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was speaking as he entered and the 
 audience was giving the closest attention to her words. 
 So silent were they, so quiet, that it seemed to Hard 
 wick that she was not putting into her voice more 
 than its ordinary strength. She was completely com 
 posed, utterly mistress of herself and obviously happy. 
 He noted that the unctuous quality of tone usual with 
 her was greatly emphasized. There spoke in it a great 
 
 318
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 319 
 
 condescension to her listeners, as though this was the 
 utterance of an oracle; and the absorption of the audi 
 ence, as it hung upon her every word, bespoke their 
 acceptance of her pronouncements at her own valuation. 
 
 Hardwick, hi his new found freedom from worry, in 
 the recoil from the abyss of gloom into which he had 
 lately been plunged, had his mind free to consider the 
 prospect before him. And he wondered at it and, 
 principally, wondered at her. After eighteen years of 
 marriage, he learned that he did not yet know his 
 wife. This woman, who stood there before him, carrying 
 her audience with her, was a new personage to him. 
 He had never suspected this power in her, and, as he 
 thought of it, it came to him that she also had been 
 unconscious of it. He was familiar with her whole 
 history, the greater part because he had, in a sense, 
 shared it, and the rest because in her constant volubility 
 every item of it had been told him in frequent repeti 
 tion. 
 
 She had always been fond of books, and had always 
 been a great though not a judicious reader. That aspect 
 of it had meant little or nothing to him because he was 
 scarcely a reader at all, and was certainly not attracted 
 by the type of literature which interested his wife. 
 Her education, that part of it which she had received 
 in schools, was limited, and the rest had come mainly 
 from books. She did not learn much in her conversations 
 with others outside of what came to her in the crystal-
 
 320 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 lization of her own impressions in speech. But Hardwick 
 did not know this, nor had he ever speculated upon the 
 subject in general. He did not know that she was ill- 
 informed upon most subjects, which were those upon 
 which she had any information whatever, and, in his 
 mind, she was an exceptionally well educated woman. 
 
 But even then, although he had had a vast experience 
 of her readiness in expression, he had never fancied in 
 her this power of leadership, this mastery. And he was 
 vaguely jealous of her success; he felt that it diminished 
 his standing in the world. This was not a clear thought, 
 it was but the reflection of a slight irritation which the 
 spectacle of her success imposed on him. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick was closing some remarks on the 
 Russian situation as he entered, and, when she had 
 paused, after asking the audience if there were any 
 more questions on the subject under discussion, there 
 was a short silence, during which Mrs. Hardwick stood 
 in an expectant attitude, while the tension of the 
 audience relaxed and there was the faint buzz of 
 whispered remarks from many places hi the hall. 
 
 Directly in front of him he heard a young woman 
 say to her neighbor: 
 
 "Isn t she wonderful? She seems to know everything, 
 doesn t she?" 
 
 "She talks very well," was the answer, "but I don t 
 think my husband would agree with her in some of her 
 opinions."
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 321 
 
 Hardwick was annoyed at the presumption of the 
 answer. What right had this woman to question? 
 
 "What subject?" asked the first speaker. 
 
 "Oh! about the labor situation. You know that Mr. 
 Purvis has very strong opinions on that subject. Why 
 only the other evening " 
 
 Just then there was a sudden silence and everyone s 
 attention was directed to a young woman hi the centre 
 of the hall, who had risen from her seat and was about 
 to put a question to Mrs. Hardwick. She was very fair, 
 and very blonde, characteristics which were emphasized 
 by the heavy rimmed tortoise shell glasses which she 
 wore. She was evidently much embarrassed by the 
 stillness which her rising had occasioned, and seemed 
 to have difficulty in controlling her voice. 
 
 "Mrs. Hardwick," she said, "I saw in the paper this 
 morning that the Bolsheviki have turned over to the 
 Germans guns which the Allies sent to Russia. You 
 didn t mention it in your talk and I wondered if they 
 had any right to do such a thing." She sat down 
 abruptly. It had evidently been a great effort. 
 
 Mrs. Hardwick answered her with perfect seriousness. 
 
 "I am afraid that the state of war is one in which all 
 ethical considerations have small respect, and in which 
 the ordinary rules of conduct are suspended. We have 
 heard the saying that All is fair in love and war, and 
 that seems to be the basis upon which all belligerent 
 nations determine their course of action. There are,
 
 322 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 however, well-established principles which are known 
 as the rules of war, but which, I am afraid, in the 
 present conflict, are more honored in the breach than 
 in the observance. In answer to your question, there 
 fore, I should say that it is quite within the right of 
 the Germans to make use of any of the machinery of 
 war which may fall into their hands, as we should con 
 sider it within ours to do a similar thing. Are there 
 any more questions?" she concluded, beaming upon her 
 audience with her most benevolent expression. 
 
 Apparently there were none, and again there was a 
 recurrence of the buzz of whispered conversation all 
 over the hall. Mrs. Hardwick waited for perhaps half 
 a minute and then spoke. 
 
 "Ladies and Gentlemen," she said loudly, and the 
 buzz ceased instantly, "I must thank you for your 
 attention this afternoon. It has been a proud and happy 
 day for me and I should like to take a few minutes of 
 your time to tell you about it. I am sure that you 
 will bear with me for a brief moment because you have 
 shown by your enthusiastic approbation of the idea 
 contained in the proposition to give this series of talks 
 on current topics, that you were moved by a lively 
 Interest in the great affairs of the day and that, if you 
 did not know that I possessed the qualities necessary to 
 entitle me to act as an authoritative interpreter of con 
 temporary history, you were willing to give me the 
 opportunity to demonstrate whether or not I was so 
 gifted.
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 323 
 
 "When I proposed this series to my dear friend, Mrs. 
 L. Percival Sedley," Mrs. Hardwick here turned and 
 looked at the lady she had just named, one of those 
 seated on the stage, "she met my modest and almost 
 timorous announcement with the warm-hearted enthusi 
 asm and encouragement which have made successful 
 so many ventures undertaken in the public interest. 
 She took up the proposition with her usual energy and 
 promptly enlisted in its behalf the co-operation of the 
 ladies whose names appear in the list of patronesses. 
 With characteristic modesty, Mrs. Sedley made no 
 change in my plans, but lent her great name and 
 influence to their furtherance, hi the exact form in 
 which I had devised them. 
 
 "Until to-day I have, no doubt, been a stranger to 
 many of you. I have lived obscurely in the bosom of 
 my family, devoting myself to the discharge of those 
 housewifely duties which are the proud portion of 
 all women true to the ideals of their sex. Never, however, 
 have I permitted my interest in what are justly con 
 sidered as the higher activities of life, those of the 
 mind and the development of learning, the arts and 
 literature, to languish. 
 
 "It is the last of these that has always claimed 
 attention in my spare hours. I have devoted myself to 
 acquiring a full mind by mastering the contents of 
 those marvelous works which are the true monuments 
 of the greatness of our race. The history of nations
 
 324 THE HAPPY WOMAN 
 
 as interpreted by the greatest minds of all ages, has 
 been the pabulum upon which my mind has constantly 
 been fed. It has always appeared to me that the surest 
 way in which to appraise the events in which we are 
 actually concerned, the history, so to speak, which we 
 make from day to day, was by an understanding of what 
 has happened in the past. Manners vary and customs 
 change; invention alters the usages of mankind, but 
 man himself is unchanged, his instincts, his emotions 
 remain the same. 
 
 "And so, in the history of all nations and all ages, 
 I have tried to read the meaning of the movements, of 
 the struggle which has convulsed the world today. 
 That I have in part succeeded is attested by your atten 
 tion, by your unfeigned interest in my words. Every 
 drop of the midnight oil which I have spent in acquiring 
 the comparatively poor store of knowledge which has 
 made possible the exposition of the views upon topics 
 of current interest which I have offered to you to-day 
 in all modesty, has been returned to me a thousand 
 fold in your undisguised cordial approbation. 
 
 "And therefore, if before to-day I have .been a stranger 
 to many of you, I feel I am so no longer. And my feeling 
 towards you is that I am in the presence of true friends. 
 I feel the greeting which your hearts extend to me is 
 all the more cordial because it is inarticulate. But my 
 position here, as speaker, gives me no such privilege. 
 I am compelled to put into words, into halting phrase,
 
 THE HAPPY WOMAN 325 
 
 that which really is beyond the power of verbal expres 
 sion. But I am emboldened by the warm sympathy 
 which I feel you hold towards me to believe that you 
 will take my words as symbols merely of an emotion 
 much more powerful than they can carry. I can only 
 thank you. You have made me a happy woman." 
 
 THE END
 
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