"Would I? Say, Nolla, would you have gone with me?" was Polly's instant retort.

"Try me now and see?" laughed Eleanor to Mrs. Courtney.

"Really, girls, do not joke! I am seriously inclined to take that trip, providing I can induce the right group of friends to accompany me. The cost of a yacht would be no small matter in these days of high costs, but I would have a year's intense satisfaction out of such a trip, and Mr.

Needham said he felt sure the costs would be met by the cargo I could carry out and another I could bring back on the round trip."

"If our gold mine gets to working again, or should the lava cliffs open soon, both Polly and I would love to enlist for just such an adventure.

But there would be no opportunity to add to our knowledge of decorating, would there?" suggested Eleanor.

"Not unless you took your lessons with you, and found clients out there who wanted you to decorate their gra.s.s huts in the good approved American way," suggested Mrs. Courtney.

"Nolla, we ought not to dream of such a trip, because we are tied to a two-year agreement with each other, you know. Then we've got to give a definite answer to those life-partners, you know," was Polly's lugubrious reply.

"I don't know, Polly! In such an unexpected matter as our going to the South Seas, a mere beau will have to bide his time. We may find a Fiji Islander more interesting to us than one of our Yankee beaus," laughed Eleanor.

Mrs. Courtney heard and pondered what had just been said; her next words did not hint of her having heard the discussion, however.

"If I do take such a trip, it shall not be in the approved line of Cook's Tours. I want to adventure in absolute freedom, with no tagging tourists or other obstacles to a perfect adventure. I would carefully select a party of fifteen or twenty harmonious souls and charter or buy a private yacht. Then start and stop as we pleased. No hurry, no lagging, unless we chose. It seems to me that such a wonderful outing would bring peace, at last, to my restless spirit." Mrs. Courtney sighed.

The girls laughed because they thought she was joking. But Mrs. Courtney was in earnest, as they were to find out. However, the topic now being discussed was the South Sea Isle trip so she was determined to conclude that before she launched another.

"If I invited you two girls to accompany me as private a.s.sistants during the trip, and should we find a score of kindred spirits willing to take a trip such as I plan, why could you not steal six months or a year from your profession, in order to see the world? Surely it would do you no harm, and you are still young enough to go on with your work when you return to New York?"

Polly and Eleanor seemed to have exactly the same idea. But Eleanor spoke impetuously of it, while Polly pondered seriously. "Dear me! If only Mr.

Dalken could spare the time to take _his_ yacht and invite us to accompany him on just such a voyage--what a wonderful trip it would be!"

Mrs. Courtney glanced at the girls, then said: "I've heard so much of your great Mr. Dalken but I've never seen him. How old a man is he, and what does he look like?"

"Oh, Dalky is not as old as he looks, because he has had such an unhappy life, you know; that is how we came to love him so! We felt keenly for him," exclaimed Eleanor, regardless of the sharp nudge Polly gave her as a warning to hold her tongue.

"Yes, I know his silly wife, poor man!" murmured Mrs. Courtney. She seemed to be lost in a sad strain of thought for a short time, and the girls hesitated to speak, just then.

Soon, however, she heaved a deep sigh and looked up to smile at the serious faces opposite her. "Well, perhaps there is a great happiness in store for your good friend, to repay him for all he has silently endured these past years."

"We sincerely hope so!" affirmed Polly, earnestly. "If anyone deserves peace and joy, dear Dalky does."

"How little the world really knows of the sorrows of those who bear their cross in silence!" sighed Mrs. Courtney. "Now, I have heard said that Mr.

Dalken is a very gay personage who knows how to make the most of his money and time. But that report came from his wife, so I took it with a grain of salt. I know from my own experience just how the sinner tries to smear the saint with his own crimes although I do not mean by that that I am a saint."

"Surely you had no unhappy experience in your life, Mrs. Courtney!"

exclaimed Eleanor, not from curiosity but from the desire to hear her esteemed friend declare that she had had only joy in her days. Mrs.

Courtney understood the motive that urged the question.

"My dear children, my married experience was much like that of your beloved friend. The difference being that my gay husband used my position and wealth to boost himself to the place where he found more agreeable companions than I proved to be. Out of sheer self-respect I was forced to divorce him. Then I began my wanderings over the globe, and finally settled in this city where I was practically unknown. You see, my pride could not brook the pity of my friends although they approved the only course open for me when my husband eloped with another man's wife."

"Oh, dear Mrs. Courtney!" sighed Eleanor, ready tears springing to her eyes. But Polly crept over and placed a sympathetic hand upon that of her hostess.

"It seems ages ago, my children," added Mrs. Courtney. "I was only eighteen when I married and I was twenty-one when I divorced my husband.

I never had a child, and I have always felt as though I had been given a very wretched deal in life, for I love children. Because of my experience, I can advise other young girls--not to marry too young, nor to accept a man for his looks or manners. A girl needs to be experienced from business, or travel and a.s.sociation with men, before she is capable of judging wisely and selecting the proper mate for life."

The bond created that morning between the mature woman and the two young girls, proved to be of such quality as would last. And such a friend as Mrs. Courtney would be for two young girls, was one of the benefits both Polly and Eleanor received by visiting country auctions of a higher cla.s.s. Not that the particular sale at Parsippany was "higher cla.s.s,"

because it was proved to have been a fake sale, but the type of buyers it attracted were of an advanced type of mentality.

"But, children, you have told me nothing more about your good friend Dalken! Tell me more of him. I just heard of his wife's latest project, and I wish to be informed first hand."

"What do you mean, Mrs. Courtney? His wife's latest project?" asked Polly, fearfully.

"Oh, perhaps you were not aware that she is in Reno? She found an affinity, it seems, during her visit abroad, last summer, and it became necessary for her to sever her legal ties if she wished to marry this other man. I heard of the scandal but not being interested in the woman, and not knowing the man, I paid no attention to the suit. Divorce cases are so common in these degenerate days." Mrs. Courtney sighed again, and showed her disapproval of the modern style of marriages.

"Poor Dalky! I wonder if he knows of this?" cried Polly.

"He would have to, dear, because she would have to serve him with papers, you see," explained Mrs. Courtney.

"And he never said a word to any one nor did he let us see he was disturbed in any way," added Eleanor.

"Maybe the poor man is relieved to have it so. At least, he will be exempt from paying her such an outrageous income, you know. I take for granted that he will put in his defence, thus absolving himself from alimony," explained Mrs. Courtney.

"It would be exactly like him to keep quiet and let that horrid woman get all she can. He is so magnanimous, you know, that he would think to himself 'She was the mother of my children, and as such I must not deprive her of what she may need'." Polly's voice had a dual tone as she spoke: one of sympathy for Mr. Dalken, one of scorn for Mrs. Dalken.

Mrs. Courtney laughed softly. "I am getting my impressions of your friend in piece-meal. You have not yet told me about him."

"That is because you've told us such astonishing news. But now I'll tell you all about good old Dalky," said Eleanor. "He is a handsome man of about forty-two or four, I think. Isn't he, Polly?"

"Yes, about that age," agreed Polly.

"Well, besides his being handsome and middle-aged, he is loving, awfully rich, both in money and good friends, and one of the most intelligent mortals I ever met!"

Eleanor's description made Mrs. Courtney smile. "One would be led to think you had met all kinds and conditions of mortals in your long, long life, child," remarked she.

"Sometimes I think I am very much older in life than _seems_ to be,"

mused Eleanor. "I feel somehow, that I have lived many centuries before this queer modern experience."

"You must have been reading theosophical books, my dear," remarked Mrs.

Courtney, eyeing Eleanor closely.

"No, I never have. I'm not interested in any such form of research--not yet," she laughed.

"Nolla, we ought to be going--really! Every time we come here to talk boudoir decorating we switch off into some byway of personal interest, and that makes us come again to get down to work," said Polly, rising and adjusting her hat, preparatory to saying good-by.

"But what about our round-trip to the South Sea Isles?" was Mrs.

Courtney's query.

"It isn't coming off, at once, is it? You've got to find a group who are companionable, and you've got to get the yacht," said Eleanor.

"It may not take me more than a week to do both. When I make up my mind to a thing, I generally do it," returned Mrs. Courtney.

"We'd have to gain the consent of our parents before we could even _think_ of taking such a marvellous voyage," declared Polly.

"But the main point is this: would you really care to go, or would you prefer staying in New York to continue your profession?" asked Mrs.