hings of you!"

"How kind of them!" said Elizabeth. "Has _Parsifal_ received any
attention?"

At the club, of course, no such gossip as that uttered at the meeting
of the Society for Ethical Research was heard. Men are above such
things. To be sure Alvord and Slater and Edgington and the rest of the
"the gang" did exchange views on some matters involving the welfare of
the club--and in the course of duty.

"I tell you," said Slater, "Brass has been practising that French
doctrine about hunting for the woman--a little too industriously.
They're getting to be something--something----"

"Fierce," suggested Alvord.

"Well, that isn't quite what I meant to say," said Slater, "but pretty
near. 'Terrible as an army with banners,' you know, and condemned near
as numerous."

"It's changed Brassfield like a coat of paint, this engagement," said
Edgington. "I saw something last week that showed me more than you
could print in a book as big as the Annual Digest. You see, he went
sort of gravitating down by where the sewer gang was at work, like a
man in a strange country full of hostiles, and although he must have
been conscious of the fact that he's slated for mayor in the spring, he
never showed that he knew of the presence of a human being, to say
nothing of a voter, in the whole gang, and Barney Conlon's gang, too.
Why, he'd better have done anything than ignore 'em! He'd better a
darn sight have stood and sung _Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill!_ as a
political move. Now that shows a revolution in his nature. It's
uncanny, and it'll play the very deuce with the slate if it goes on."

"Well, you all know what took place at his counting-room," asked
Slater, "the day after he got back from New York? Old Stevens
resigned, on the street the night before, and Brass didn't seem to know
any more than to accept his resignation. Hired him back since, I've
heard, but he ought not to have noticed it. He certainly has gone off
badly."

"I knew a fellow once," said Edgington, "who went sort of crazy on the
girl question--batty. D'ye s'pose this engagement----"

"They change to their lady friends," said Slater, "sometimes. But
he--why, he passed me a dozen times with a cold stare!"

"Me, too," said Edgington, "and he didn't seem to know Flossie Smith
when he met her, and Doctor Julia Brown gave him a calling-down on the
street--a public lecture on etiquette. Colonel McCorkle claims to have
been insulted by him, and won'