"I can't think of anything, Eveley," he said sadly, "except that good-looking fellow eating my steak, cooked by the hands of my er--girl."
As a matter of fact, he took it very seriously. For while he was still firmly wedded to his ideal of fame and fortune, he was unceasingly haunted by the fearful nightmare of some interloper "beating his time," as he crudely but patently expressed it.
He spent a long and dreary evening, followed by other evenings equally long and dreary, for the Good-Looking Young Member found great difficulty in mastering the intricacies of a Dutiless Life, and Eveley continued his education with the greatest patience, and some degree of pleasure.
Her interest in the pursuit of motors did not wane, however, and after trying every known make of car, and investigating the advance reports of all cars designed for manufacture in the early future, she blithely invested her fortune in a sturdy blue Rollsmobile, and was immediately enraptured with the sensation of absolute control of a throbbing engine.
She found it no trifling matter to attend to her regular duties as private secretary, to keep her Cloud Cote dainty and sweet as of yore, to be out in her little blue car on every possible occasion, and still not neglect the Good-Looking Member and the Father-in-law in her campaign against duty.
First of all, she invited the elder Mr. Severs to dinner, and forestalled his refusal by saying: "Please. I have a perfectly wonderful calf's liver, and I want you to cook it for me. The odor that comes up from the kitchen below is irresistible."
No father-in-law who loved calf's liver and a kitchen could withstand that invitation and he found he had accepted before he knew it. To his boundless delight, the dinner was as though designed in Heaven, for his delectation. Clam chowder, calves' liver and sliced onions, watermelon preserves, and home made apple pie--made by Kitty, who had received rigid orders to provide the richest and juiciest confection possible, overflowing with apples and spice.
As they sat chummily together over a red table-cloth, which Eveley had bought especially for this occasion, she said thoughtfully:
"I believe I am the only really happy person in the world. Do you know why? It is because I am free. I am not dependent on the whims or fancies of any one. I eat what I like, go where I like, sleep when I like. It is the only life. I often think how remarkable it is that you can be so happy living down there with those honeymooners, doing everything to please them, eating what they like, going to bed when they get sleepy. It is wonderfully unselfish of you--but I couldn't. I have to be free."