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tender wheedling way, and the harsh-lipped and cold – and he did not know which he dreaded most. As a child they had admired her assertiveness, had made Apex ring with their boasts of it; but it had long since cowed Mrs Spragg, and it was beginning to frighten her husband.
    ‘Fact is, Undie,’ he said, weakening, ‘I’m a little mite strapped just this month.’
    Her eyes grew absent-minded as they always did when he alluded to business.
That
was man’s province; and what did men go ‘down town’ for but to bring back the spoils to theirwomen? She rose abruptly, leaving her parents seated, and said, more to herself than the others: ‘Think I’ll go for a ride.’
    ‘Oh, Undine!’ fluttered Mrs Spragg. She always had palpitations when Undine rode, and since the Aaronson episode her fears were not confined to what the horse might do.
    ‘Why don’t you take your mother out shopping a little?’ Mr Spragg suggested, conscious of the limitation of his resources.
    Undine made no answer, but swept down the room, and out of the door ahead of her mother, with scorn and anger in every line of her arrogant young back. Mrs Spragg tottered meekly after her, and Mr Spragg lounged out into the marble hall to buy a cigar before taking the Subway to his office.
    Undine went for a ride, not because she felt particularly disposed for the exercise, but because she wished to discipline her mother. She was almost sure she would get her opera box, but she did not see why she should have to struggle for her rights, and she was especially annoyed with Mrs Spragg for seconding her so half-heartedly. If she and her mother did not hold together in such crises she would have twice the work to do.
    Undine hated ‘scenes’: she was essentially peace-loving, and would have preferred to live on terms of unbroken harmony with her parents. But she could not help it if they were unreasonable. Ever since she could remember there had been ‘fusses’ about money; yet she and her mother had always got what they wanted, apparently without lasting detriment to the family fortunes. It was therefore natural to conclude that there were ample funds to draw upon, and that Mr Spragg’s occasional resistances were merely due to an imperfect understanding of what constituted the necessities of life.
    When she returned from her ride Mrs Spragg received her as if she had come back from the dead. It was absurd, of course; but Undine was inured to the absurdity of parents.
    ‘Has father telephoned?’ was her first brief question.
    ‘No, he hasn’t yet.’
    Undine’s lips tightened, but she proceeded deliberately with the removal of her habit.
    ‘You’d think I’d asked him to buy me the Opera House, the way he’s acting over a single box,’ she muttered, flinging aside her smartly fitting coat.
    Mrs Spragg received the flying garment and smoothed it out on the bed. Neither of the ladies could ‘bear’ to have their maid about when they were at their toilet, and Mrs Spragg had always performed these ancillary services for Undine.
    ‘You know, Undie, father hasn’t always got the money in his pocket, and the bills have been pretty heavy lately. Father was a rich man for Apex, but that’s different from being rich in New York.’
    She stood before her daughter, looking down on her appealingly.
    Undine, who had seated herself while she detached her stock and waistcoat, raised her head with an impatient jerk. ‘Why on earth did we ever leave Apex, then?’ she exclaimed.
    Mrs Spragg’s eyes usually dropped before her daughter’s inclement gaze; but on this occasion they held their own with a kind of awe-struck courage, till Undine’s lids sank above her flushing cheeks.
    She sprang up, tugging at the waistband of her habit, while Mrs Spragg, relapsing from temerity to meekness, hovered about her with obstructive zeal.
    ‘If you’d only just let go of my skirt, mother – I can unhook it twice as quick myself.’
    Mrs Spragg drew back,