E flaming daffodils from her side and slipped them into the empty vase. She stepped

back to survey their sunlit brill iance, resting a gloved hand upon the
chair she had deserted. She
was conscious that another hand was bearing down heavily upon her
slender ringers. The weight crushed and pained her, yet she felt no desire to withdraw... The office boy came in. She moved forward quickly.
"There's a gentleman named Starratt waiting to see you," he announced.
She threw back her head defensively. "This way!" Hilmer said, as he opened a private

exit for her. She found herself in the marble-flanked hallway and presently she gained the
sun-flooded street. The blood was pounding at her temples and its
throb hurt.
She walked
home rapidly, swept by half-formulated impulses that stirred her to almost adolescent
self-revelations, yet when she reached her apartment she was quite
calm, almost
too calm, and outwardly cold. That night over the black coffee Fred Starratt
said to his wife, with an air of restrained triumph: "Well,
I landed the insurance on Hilmer's
car to-day." She flashed
him, an enigmatical smile. "Oh, lovely!"... He sipped his coffee

with preening satisfaction. "Everything is going beautifully,"
he continued. "I hired an office and began to connect up with two or three firms. That preliminary from Hilmer
was a great boost... A man named Kendrick handles all his business,
so I've sort of got the street guessing. They can't figure how I
could even get a look in... Of course
I'm convinced that Kendrick shares his commissions
with Hilmer, which is against the rules of the Broker's Exchange. But he didn't ask for any shakedown... Brauer and I ordered some office furniture, and to-morrow I'll advertise for
a gir