She was in a gay humor at the success of the
entertainment, despite the non-committal attitude of this censor, and
pleased at the appositeness of her quotation. Her figure had filled out
since her marriage. She was almost plump and she wore a single short fat
curl pendent behind her ear.
A few months subsequent to this dinner party Flossy announced one day
that Mr. Silas S. Parsons, whom Selma had seen with the Williamses at
the theatre nearly three years before, had come to live in New York with
his wife and daughter. Flossy referred to him eagerly as one of her
husband's most valuable customers, a shrewd, sensible, Western business
man, who had made money in patent machinery and was superbly rich. He
had gone temporarily to a hotel, but he was intending to build a large
house on Fifth Avenue near the park. Selma heard this announcement with
keen interest, asking herself at once why Wilbur should not be the
architect. Why not, indeed? She promptly reasoned that here was her
chance to aid her husband; that he, if left to his own devices, would do
nothing to attract the magnate's attention, and that it behooved her, as
an American wife and a wide-awake, modern woman, to let Mr. Parsons know
his qualifications, and to prepossess him in Wilbur's favor by her own
attractions.
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