thread viciously and said, "Humph," as she rose to start the tea-party
home.

* * * * *

That night I did so many exercises that at last I sank exhausted in a
chair in front of my mirror and put my head down on my arms and cried
the real tears you cry when nobody is looking. I felt terribly old and
ugly and dowdy and--widowed. It couldn't have been jealousy, for I just
love that girl. I want most awfully to hug her very slimness, and it
was more what she might think of poor dumpy me than what any man in
Hillsboro, or Paris, could possibly feel on the subject, that hurt so
hard. But then, looking back on it, I am afraid that jealousy sheds
feathers every night so you won't know him in the morning, for something
made me sit up suddenly with a spark in my eyes and reach out to the
desk for my pencil and cheque-book. It took me more than an hour to
reckon it all up, but I went to bed a happier, though in prospects
a poorer woman.

As I sat in the train on my way to town early the next morning I thought
a good deal about poor Mr. Carter. After this I shall always appreciate
and admire him for the way he made money, and his kindness in leaving it
to me, since, for the first time in my life, I fully realised what it
could buy. And I bought things!

First I went to see Madam Courtier for corsets. I had heard about her,
and I knew it meant a fortune. But that didn't matter! She came in and
looked at me for about five minutes without saying a word, and then she
ran her hands down and down over me until I could feel the superfluous
flesh just walking off of me. It was delicious!