She was, they admitted, lovely-looking. She had enormous natural style. She did not make an effort to be more than barely polite to them. For this she had two reasons. She was concentrating with all her charm, energy, intelligence, and ambition, on Bay Husack. And she was scared to death of the memory of those months in Hollywood when she had known such insecurity and fear and cruelty as to mark her for life. These girls she met at the Husacks’ and elsewhere, so secure and serene and protected, were young goddesses poised permanently on the amazing hills of Seattle. They wore their good expensive clothes with quiet assurance, they expertly drove cars in which they sat like toothsome turtles in a shell with only their heads sticking out above the car’s protective crust. They sailed boats that were really ships. Their skin was fine and fair under the moist kiss of the Northwest fogs. They never had known fear. They never had run around lugging that round patent-leather hatbox. Maybe their mothers talked as much as Louise Husack, Dina thought, though she doubted it. Maybe their fathers were old goats like Dave Husack. Not likely. Though Dave was more human than Bay, at that. At least you knew where you were with him and could handle him. Sometimes she thought she hated Bay. Lately Mrs. Husack talked a great deal about her nerves. How about my nerves, Dina thought, grimly, just consider that a moment while you’re up, will you, madam?

So now she spent some hours weekly at the Husack offices, she was on hand to take Visiting Big Business Wives shopping or touring the city. She supervised Louise Husack’s eternal dinner and luncheon parties. She accompanied Dave and two or three business associates to dinner or lunch at the Olympic or the country club, ostensibly to take notes when necessary, but there was no denying she added a touch of unbusinesslike excitement.

“Some secretary you’ve got there, Dave,” they would say, tentatively.

“Dina! Oh, she’s like a daughter to Mrs. Husack and me. We’ve practically adopted her since her parents were killed. Very sad, very sad business.”

Sometimes Dina even accompanied Dave on his business trips, now that Louise was more or less incapacitated. No one but Dina and Dave knew how pure in deed, at least, these business trips were. Dina was completely determined and relentless. Security was what she wanted and would have, she wanted no frolic in a big, uninquisitive, luxurious chain-hotel suite.

Dave’s trips were, for the most part, to Washington, San Francisco, New York. There were occasional little side trips to Portland, Tacoma, Spokane, but this was small stuff in which Dina had no part, you did not need to impress these neighboring towns in which Dave Husack was at once a familiar yet almost mythical figure of success.

If Dina, in her secretarial capacity, accompanied Dave on one of these West-East business trips, Dave always returned with a lavish gift for his semi-invalid wife.