His Second Wife | Page 8

Joe's a dear, of course, and he's working hard.
And he's getting it, too, he's getting it!" A gleam of hunger almost
fierce came into her clear violet eyes. "I want a larger apartment--I've
picked out the very one. And I want a car, a limousine. I know just how
I'll paint it a mauve body with white wheels. And I want a house on
Long Island. I've picked out the very spot--just next to Fanny Carr's
new place."
As her sister spoke of these ideals, again Ethel had that feeling of
church, but only for a moment.
"Who's Fanny Carr?" she asked alertly.
Amy was slowly combing her hair, and she smiled with kindly
tolerance, for her little confession had brought back her faith in herself
and her future.

"Fanny was a writer once--"
"Oh, really!"
"Yes. She ran a department on one of the papers." It had been the dress
pattern page, but Amy did not mention that. Instead she yawned
complacently. "Oh, she dropped it quick enough--she thought it rather
tiresome. She's one of the cleverest women I know. She'd have got a
long way up in the world, if it weren't for her second husband--"
"Her second?"
"Yes. The first one didn't do very well. She told me once, 'If you want
to get on, change your name at least once in every three years.' Her
second, as it happened, was no better than the first. But she was clever
enough by then to get an able lawyer; and when it came to the divorce,
Fanny succeeded in keeping the house, the one out on Long Island."
"Oh," said Ethel tensely. Her sister shot a look at her.
"I don't care especially for Fanny's ideas about husbands," she said.
"But at least she has a love of a home." And Amy went on to explain to
her sister the value and importance of being able to give "week ends."
Again the gleam came into her eyes.
"It's money, my dear, it's money. They are the same women in Newport
exactly--just like all the rest of us--only they are richer. That's all--but it
is everything. Put me in a big house out there, and my friends wouldn't
know me in a few years."
A cloud came on her face as she looked in the glass.
"But that's just the trouble. A few years more and I'll be too late.
You've got to get there while you're young. And there's so little time.
You lose your looks. It's all very well for some women to talk about
ideas and things--and travel and--and children. I did, too, I talked a
lot--oh, how I wanted everything! But one has to narrow down. Thank
heaven, Ethel, you've years ahead. I've only got a few more left--I'm

already thirty-one. And my type ages fast in this town, if you do the
things you're expected to do. But you--oh, Ethel, I want you to marry
well! Not a millionaire--that's rather hard, and besides he'd probably be
too fat--but the kind who will be a millionaire, who has it written all
over his face and makes you feel it in his voice! Don't sell yourself too
cheap, my dear! Don't go running about with men who'll keep you poor
for the rest of your days. They talk so well--some of them do; and it
sounds so fine--ideas and books and pictures and--I knew one who was
an architect. And it's all very well for later on, but what you've got to
do right at the start--while you have the looks and youth--is to find the
man who can give you a house where all those other people will be
tumbling to get in--because you'll have the money--you'll be able to
entertain--and give them what they really want--in spite of all their
talking."
Once more, with a weary sigh, she dropped the religious intensity, and
smiled as she wistfully added:
"That's where some man can put you. They do, you know, they do it.
Some man does it every day. You can see his name in the papers.
Dozens of wives get to Newport each year. And what do they do it on?
Money!
"That's romance enough for me, my dear. And if you want work and a
career, the most fascinating kind I know is to study the man you've
married--find what's holding him back and take it away--what's pushing
him on and help it grow! You've got to narrow, narrow down! You may
want a lot of children. They're loves, of course, to have around. But you
run a big risk in that. I could give you so many cases--mothers who
have just dropped out. If you want to really get on in this town, you've
got to stick to your husband and make your