The moments seemed to fly away.  Now they had left the men to smoke.  But soon the men had followed them, and every one was smoking, and Ethel was trying a cigarette.  The talk ran on, about this and that.  But over on her side of the room, Sally had led the conversation back to Joe’s old student days, to the Beaux Arts and life in the Quarter.  Ethel heard snatches from time to time, and she kept throwing vigilant glances over at her husband’s face.  He seemed to be responding, with a hungriness that thrilled his wife.  Again he would fall silent, with an anxious gleam in his eyes.  “He’s wondering if he’s too old!” she thought, and she crossed the room and joined them.

Sally was cleverly drawing him out about some of those early plans of his.  And though awkward at first, he was warming up.  In the room the hubbub died away.  “They’re listening to Joe!” thought Ethel.  Joe kept talking on and on.  Every few moments some one would break in to ask him something, or to raise a little laugh.  Ethel tingled with pride in him, and with hope for the success of her scheming.

Now the crucial time arrived.  For one by one the guests had gone, till only she and Joe and Nourse remained with Sally and her husband.  The moment for springing the great idea had come at last.  Nourse was to do the talking.  That had been arranged ahead, at a meeting of Nourse and the two wives.  But all at once in a panic now, Ethel knew that Nourse would bungle it.  Why had she entrusted so much to this man?  Had he ever shown tact in his whole life?  And why so soon?  Oh, it had been rash!  The evening had passed so gorgeously.  Why not have waited and had other evenings to pave the way and make it sure!  She tried to signal to Nourse to stop him, but he could or would not hear!  Now he was getting ready to speak.

“Well,” he said, rising and turning on Ethel a curious smile, “I guess it’s time I was going home.”

She stared at him in blank relief.  So he had some sense about things, after all.

“But look here, Bill,” said her husband, “before you go, let’s give these scheming women of ours to understand we don’t want ’em to meddle in our affairs.”

“Right,” growled Nourse.  And a moment later the three men confronted two astonished wives, and Bill was gravely announcing, “We’ve done this thing all by ourselves.  The firm is ‘Nourse, Lanier and Crothers.’  And from this night on we propose to do business without any interference from wives.  Understand!” He frowned menacingly.  “We settled that this afternoon.  And the next thing we decided was that Joe packs up this wife of his, whether she happens to like it or not, and takes her over to Paris.  See?  And if she tries to keep him from work by yanking him all around to the shops—­”

While Nourse growled on in his surly way, Ethel slipped quietly into the hall—­where presently Sally with one arm about her was proffering a handkerchief and murmuring.