out on the links the other day--"

"Yes," observed Sargeant, leaning on the back of Carter's armchair;
"yes; and I noticed, too, that she cut you dead. You fellows should
have been there," he went on, in perfect good humor, turning to the
others. "You missed a good little scene. Rivers and Miss Bessemer had
been taking a tramp over the Reservation--and, by the way, it's a great
place to walk, so my sister tells me; she and Dick Forsythe take a
constitutional out there every Saturday morning--well, as I was saying,
Rivers and Miss Bessemer came upon our party rather unexpectedly. We
were all togged out in our golfing bags, and I presume we looked more
like tailor's models, posing for the gallery, than people who were
taking an outing; but Rivers and Miss Bessemer had been regularly
exercising; looked as though they had done their fifteen miles since
morning. They had their old clothes on, and they were dusty and muddy.

"You would have thought that a young girl such as Miss Bessemer is--for
she's very young--would have been a little embarrassed at running up
against such a spick and span lot as we were. Not a bit of it; didn't
lose her poise for a moment. She bowed to my sister and to me, as
though from the top of a drag, by Jove! and as though she were fresh
from Redfern and Virot. You know a girl that can manage herself that
way is a thoroughbred. She even remembered to cut little Johnnie
Carter here, because Johnnie forced himself upon her one night at a
dance when he was drunk; didn't she, Johnnie? Johnnie came up to her
there, out on the links, fresh as a daisy, and put out his hand, with,
'Why, how do you do, Miss Bessemer?' and 'wherever did you come from?'
and 'I haven't seen you in so long'; and she says, 'No, not since our
last dance, I believe, Mr. Carter,' and looked at his hand as though it
was something funny.

"Little Johnnie mumbled and flushed and stammered and backed off; and
it was well that he did, because Rivers had begun to get red around the
wattles. I say the little girl is a thoroughbred, and my sister wants
to give her a dinner as soon as she comes out. But Johnnie says she's
declassee, so may be my sister had better think it over."

"I didn't say she was declassee," exclaimed Carter. "I only said she
would do well to be more careful."

Sargeant shifted his cigar to the other corner of his mouth, one eye
shut to avoid the smoke.

"One might say as much of lots of people," he a