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Just how Leslie Ward had drifted into his innocuous affair with the star

of "The Valley" he was not certain hi back, he was to wonder sometimes if it had not been

precisely for the purpose it served But that was long months after

Not until the pattern was conize his oork in it

The truth was that he was not too happy at hoely Road had at first kept her busy She had spent

unlimited time with decorators, had studied and rejected innumerable

water-color sketches of interiors, had haunted auction roos she felt at the moment she could not do without,

later on to have to wheedle Leslie into straightening her bank balance

Thought, too, and considerable energy had gone into training and

outfitting her servants, and stillthem to wear the

expensive uniforms and livery she provided

But what she made, so successfully, was a house rather than a hoan to feel that it was not even

a house, but a small hotel They almost never dined alone, and when they

did Nina would explain that everybody was tied up Then, after dinner,

restlessness would seize her, and she would want to run in to the

theater, or to rievance all

evening

And he did not like her friends Things cas was on, he would stay in town, playing