ey. There had been basement dining-rooms, catsup bottles,
and people passing everything to everybody else!

"I'm afraid I'm early," he said in his quick voice.

"Not a bit. Calvin, place a chair for Mr. Dalton."

There were fruit and nuts and raisins in a great silver epergne, with
fat cupids making love among garlands. There was coffee in Sevres cups.

Back among the shadows twinkled a priceless mirror; shutting off
Calvin's serving table was a painted screen worth its weight in gold.
It was a far cry from the catsup bottles and squalid service of
George's early days. The Bannisters of Huntersfield wore their poverty
like a plume!

The Judge carried Dalton off presently to the Bird Room. George went
with reluctance. This was not what he had come for. Becky, slim and
small, with her hair peaked up to a topknot, Becky in pale blue, Becky
as fair as her string of imitation pearls, Becky in the golden haze of
the softly illumined room, Becky, Becky Bannister--the name chimed in
his ears.

Dalton had had some difficulty in getting away from Hamilton Hill.

"It's my last night," Madge had said; "shall we go out in the garden
and watch the moon rise?"

"Sorry," George had told her, "but I've promised Flora to take a fourth
hand at bridge."

"And after that?" asked Madge softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Who is the new--little girl?"

It was useless to pretend. "She's a beauty, rather, isn't she?"

"Oh, Georgie-Porgie, I wish you wouldn't."

"Wouldn't what?"

"Kiss the girls--and make them--cry----"

"You've never cried----"

She laughed at that. "If I haven't it is because I know that
afterwards you always--run away."

He admitted it. "One can't marry them all."

"I wonder if you are ever serious," she told him, her chin in her hand.

"I am always serious. That's what makes it interesting----"

"But the poor little--hearts?"

"Some one has to teach them," said George, "that it's a pretty game----"

"Will it be always a game--to you--Georgie?"

"Who knows?" he said. "So far I've held trumps----"

"Your conceit is colossal, but somehow you seem to get away with it."
She smiled and stood, up. "I'm going to bed early. I have been losing
my beauty sleep lately, Georgie."

He chose to be gallant. "You are not losing your beauty, if that's
what you mean."

Her dinner gown was of the same shade of mauve that she had worn in the
afternoon. But it was of a material so sheer that the gold