"He will get up at any hour of the night to chase after a fire
engine, and every whipstitch he gets pinched for doing something
which is perfectly lawful and right in the desert and perfectly
awful in the city. You saw him," said the Little Woman,
"to-day." And she added wistfully, "It's the first time since we
were married that he has ever talked back--to me.

"And you know," she went on, shuffling the cards and stopping to
regard the joker attentively (though I am sure she didn't know
what card she was looking at), "just chasing around town and
doing nothing but square yourself for not playing according to
the rules costs money without getting you anywhere. Fifty-five
thousand dollars isn't so much just to play with, in this town.
Casey's highest ambition now seems to be nickel disk wheels on a
new racing car that can make the speed cops go some to catch him.
His idea of economy is to put six or seven thousand dollars into
a car that will enable him to outrun a twenty-dollar fine!

"We have some money invested," she went on. "We own this
apartment house--and fortunately it's in my name. So long as the
housing problem continues critical, I think I can keep Casey
going without spending our last cent."

"He did one good stroke of business," I ventured, "when he bought
this place. Apartment houses are good as gold mines these days."

The Little Woman laughed. "Well-sir, it wasn't so much a stroke
as it was a wallop. Casey bought it just to show who was boss,
he or the landlord. The first thing he did when we moved in was