The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1919-03-14

rectlOn. 'FOr SOOQneSS sake, Daphne
don't lose your head. Don't you i'm
| agine for moment that husband
, will be happier and love his wife bet
ter because she earns wages. Th'
, harder you work for men, the better
! they like somebody else. The harder
likes you. Best of all, he loves the
woman that tries to break him."
Daphne's answer was q snappy: e
don't believe it, I'd despise a mar
that felt that way"
The three women wrangled witt
wise saws and modern instances, ant
they were in a perilous state of dis
sension when the telephone rang. Leila
answered it and her outcries of indig
nation alarmed Mrs. Kip and Daphne
till they learned the cause
Bayard had called up to say that
the luncheon party must be postponed
Outrageous business had made anOth-
er insidious attack on love.
Leila came from the telephone in q
state of desperation mitigated by the
fact that Bayard had asked her to
take his mother and Daphne shopping
and buy them and herself something
worth while as an atonement for his
abandonment
So they set forth again on another
onset against the ramparts of beauty.
To the silent horror of Daphne and
her mother, Leila was persuaded to
buy new coat and new hat and to
pay for them by the convenience of
opening two new accounts at the sug-
gestion of two soapy statesmen. Bay
ards surrender after his first battle
had already accomplished the expect
able result.
Everything was the very latest thing
and yet was marked down. But Daph-
ne priced things now with a new soul.
She was thinking in the terms of
wages and toll.
She was going to earn fifty thousand
a year some day, but she supposed
that at first she would earn very little
twenty-five dollars week, perhaps.
For the first time in her existence
she wildly understood how all these
fairy tissues We're the products of hui
man labor, paid for with wages and to
be sold for other wages. Pearls were
drops of sweat; perfumes were the
signs of weary men; soft fabrics were
the hard spinning of human silkworms.
Bayard was even now racking his
brain TO accumulate what three wom-
en- were squandering
So Daphne meditated as she had
never meditated before and might not
often mediate again. She refused TO
buy thing. Her mother could only
explain her mood as a symptom of an
illness and advise her to get home to
bed. There was something suspicious
in the condition of girl who could
look with qualms of conscience or ap-
petite on such a banquet.
AT length fatigue and faintness re-
minded Mrs. Kip, senior, that she had
not eaten and the hour was late. She
called for her luncheon and they went
together to tearoom. Here Daphne
had another attack of eccentricity; q
stubborn determination to go home
and send back to Dutilh the wicked |
gown that she had bought of him on |
credit.
She had left the house without re- |
turning it and she was afraid that |
there would be difficulties if she de- |
layed. Fortunately there had been no |
in the gown.
Perhaps there is no form that satan
takes oftener than that of fashion
able gown. In that shape he offers
the conquest of the world. But
Daphne resisted him and said to Leila:
Get thee behind me, satan. I'm go
ing to return this gown and let Dutilh
give Bayard credit for it. / won't look
at another gown till / can pay for it
out of my own earnings. I'll not get
till | can buy the rest of my
rousseau myself. I've decided that
an independent woman must buy her
own rousseau"
Even in the eyes of ambition this
promised to require a fairly long
Deriod-a period so lengthy that she
wondered if Clay's love would outlast
It.
She did love him and the thought
If losing him alarmed her more than
he thought of losing the precious
gown. Il
Leila woke from her meditation with
/ sudden "Come along; we must dress
or the tea-fight."
Mrs. Kip, senior, amused the young
xips by thinking aloud II wonder if |
hat nice Mr.. Duane viii be at the
ea.''
"Ohi shame shamer' cried Leila.
It's a regular intrigue. No, he won't !
,e there. Telephone him at the Rae j
Iuet club and he'll come to you. He's
Usually there"
She did not see the start the artless
lint gave Daphne, who had learned by
Iccident what she had not known how
o find out otherwise. Daphne con-
called her agitation In the briskness I
With which she concluded the affair Of
he DutIlh gown. She folded 1t up and
aid it back In the box as n it were
ably she was about to leave on door
tep. She kissed 1t 9ood-by and put 4
he lid over 1t and tied It up with s
raxy combination Of strings Of vari-