hrew out at random, "come down to our place
over night. The cart will be round in a few minutes."

Thornton, flaccid from hot days in the laboratory, welcomed any
proffered excuse for a loaf. So they jogged away in the soft evening,
from the cropped green hedges and the red brick buildings of Camberton
into the country turnpike, smoking and keeping a peaceful silence.
After athletics and carts had been talked out there was not much to
start fresh conversation with. Camberton slipped away, with its
endless problems, its ambitious prods. Jarvis Thornton entered another
atmosphere when the cart crunched the gravel of the drive at the Four
Corners. The Ellwells were on the veranda. "Who are the Ellwells?"
Thornton asked himself as he found a chair next the white dress of the
daughter. "And why did I get myself into a family party for a day and
two nights without knowing what to expect?"

He discovered an order of things he had never seen before in the
rounds of his proper visiting list--the broker world. Ellwell had the
possibilities of a gentleman, and in comparison with the three or
four companions that he had with him this Sunday, his manners were
distinguished. He was a Camberton man, he would have Jarvis Thornton
understand, a classmate of Thornton's father, and if their paths had
separated, Ellwell, nevertheless, had a position equal to the
Thorntons. As for the others, they were clerks, who in one way or
another had managed to get their seats--men with no great permanent
stake in the community, the modern substitute for the condottiere
class. The Four Corners gave them a place to eat and drink and play a
long game of poker, which amusements satisfied their cravings for
diversion. Jarvis Thornton was a mere young prig that had walked
inadvertently their way; young Roper Ellwell joined the Sunday game,
while Thornton was left with the women to pass the day. The Sunday
went off quietly with a long drive in the afternoon. At dinner
Thornton sat beside the elder daughter. There were stretches of
silence, for the general talk and the table interested him more than
his companion. The other men discussed business or scandal; old
Ellwell told stories that were broad and fatuous, to which young
Ellwell responded with heavy laughter. Ruby joked with an old-young
man named Bradley, a broker, who had been winning in the day's game.
As they came near the end of the long dinner Mrs. Ellwell excused
herself. Thornton scrutinized h