have a nine-room apartment at a Hundred and Fortieth street, now I’ve got a five-room flat at a Hundred and Seventy-sixth!  My ‘friends’ don’t come to see me because it’s too far uptown.  I used to have a servant to do my work and a woman come in to do my washing, now I have to do the work and the cooking and the washing into the bargain.  Don’t talk to me about your cigars, and your lunches, and your pocket money!  Only a woman can know what it means to come down in the world!”

He listened in silence to her tirade, carelessly rocking back and forth on the two rear legs of his tilted chair.  When finally she stopped for sheer want of breath he said: 

“I guess you’re right, Fanny, I’m sorry I spoke.  The woman gets the worst of it every time.”

“Yes—­every time, Jimmie,” she said emphatically as she proceeded to lay the table.  “Whether she’s right or wrong.”

“If Virginia hadn’t quit Stafford,” he grumbled, “it would have been different.”

“There’s no use talking of that—­she did leave him—­”

Jimmie looked up, an injured expression on his face.

“Yes, and what day did she pick out?” he cried indignantly.  “The very day Stafford raised me to a hundred and fifty!” Jumping up from his chair he began to pace the floor nervously.  “Great Scott!” he exclaimed, “just think of it!  I used to get a hundred and fifty!  Of course I only got it for a day and a quarter—­but I got it!”

His wife stopped in her work.  Sharply she demanded: 

“And whose fault was it that you only got it for a day and a quarter?”

“Mine, I suppose,” he replied gloomily.

“You had no right to try to interfere between Mr. Stafford and Virginia—­that was their business.”

“So he told me!  And when I said that anything that concerned my wife’s sister was my business and I wouldn’t be associated with a man who didn’t treat her right, and walked out, I thought he’d send a messenger after me before I reached the corner.  In fact, I waited at the corner.”

“But the messenger didn’t come,” she said sarcastically.

“No.  But even that didn’t bother me much—­then!  I thought I’d soon get another job just as good.”

Fanny shrugged her shoulders.  With a sigh she said: 

“I wonder if you’ll ever have one ‘just as good.’”

“Of course, I will,” he said confidently.

“When?”

“I’m likely to get a good job most any time.”

“Well, till you do,” she retorted, “hang on to the one you have.  When rent day comes, thirteen dollars in real money is a heap sight better than a hundred and fifty in hopes.”

Jim shifted about uneasily on his feet.  Stupidly he said: 

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“I know so,” she exclaimed.

“Besides,” he said with some hesitation, “one of my ideas might turn out big.”

His wife laughed scornfully.