s its savage mood, when anything with
blood in its veins may not go abroad and live."

"I suppose you have been out here in a blizzard, haven't you?" said the
chaperon; but when he would have replied there was a general stir, and
the waiter announced:

"Dinner is served."

VII

A DINNER ON WHEELS

When the President's party gathered about the table, Mrs. Dunham placed
Brockway at her right, with Gertrude beside him. Mr. Vennor disapproved
of the arrangement, but he hoped that Priscilla Beaswicke, who was
Brockway's _vis-a-vis_, might be depended upon to divert the passenger
agent's attention. Miss Beaswicke confirmed the hope with her second
spoonful of soup by asking Brockway what he thought of Tourguenief.

Now, to the passenger agent, the great Russian novelist was as yet no
more than a name, and he said so frankly and took no shame therefore.
Whereupon Mr. Vennor:

"Oh, come, Priscilla; you mustn't begin on Mr. Brockway like that. I
fancy he has had scant time to dabble in your little intellectual fads."

Gertrude looked up quickly, and the keen sense of justice began to
assert itself. Having escaped the pillory in his character of artisan,
the passenger agent was to be held up to ridicule in his proper person.
Not if she could help it, Gertrude promised herself; and she turned
suddenly upon the collegian.

"What do you think of Tourguenief, Cousin Chester?" she asked, amiably.

"A good bit less than nothing," answered the athlete, with his eyes in
his plate. "What is there about him that we ought to know and don't?"

"Tell us, Priscilla," said Gertrude, passing the query along.

But the elder Miss Beaswicke refused to enlighten anyone. "Go and get
his book and read it, as I did," she said.

"I sha'n't for one," Fleetwell declared. "I can't read the original, and
I won't read a translation."

"Have you read him in the original, Priscilla?" Gertrude inquired,
determined to push the subject so far afield that it could never get
back.

"Oh, hush!" said the elder Miss Beaswicke. "What is the matter with you
two. I refuse positively to be quarrelled with."

That ended the Russian divagation, and it had the effect of making the
table-talk impersonal. This was precisely what Mr. Vennor desired. What
he meant to do was to set a conversational pace which would show
Gertrude that Brockway was hopelessly out of his element in her own
social sphere.

The plan succeeded admirably. So far as the soci