further, couldn't take this young
man into his confidence an inch further. He stuck his stick into his
overcoat-pocket so that it stood upright, and wheeled sharply.

"Good-by," he said, and added at the door, "I suppose you think this
makes a difference in your prospects."

"Mrs. Farron has asked me to come to dinner to-night."

Lanley wheeled back again.

"What?" he said.

"Yes, she almost urged me, though I didn't need urging."

Lanley didn't answer, but presently went out in silence. He was
experiencing the extreme loneliness that follows being more royalist
than the king.

CHAPTER XVII

On Mondays and Thursdays, the only days Mr. Lanley went down-town, he
expected to have the corner table at the restaurant where he always
lunched and where, on leaving Farron's office, he went. He had barely
finished ordering luncheon--oyster stew, cold tongue, salad, and a
bottle of Rhine wine--when, looking up, he saw Wilsey was approaching
him, beaming.

"Haryer, Wilsey?" he said, without cordiality.

Wilsey, it fortunately appeared, had already had his midday meal, and had
only a moment or two to give to sociability.

"Haven't seen you since that delightful evening," he murmured. "I hope
Mrs. Baxter got my card." He mentioned his card as if it had been a gift,
not munificent, but not negligible, either.

"Suppose she got it if you left it," said Mr. Lanley, who had heard her
comment on it. "My man's pretty good at that sort of thing."

"Ah, how rare they are getting!" said Wilsey, with a sigh--"good
servants. Upon my word, Lanley, I'm almost ready to go."

"Because you can't get good servants?" said his friend, who was drumming
on the table and looking blankly about.

"Because all the old order is passing, all the standards and backgrounds
that I value. I don't think I'm a snob--"

"Of course you're a snob, Wilsey."

Mr. Wilsey smiled temperately.

"What do you mean by the word?"

It was a question about which Lanley had been thinking, and he answered:

"I mean a person who values himself for qualities that have no moral,
financial, or intellectual value whatsoever. You, for instance, Wilsey,
value yourself not because you are a pretty good lawyer, but because your
great-grandfather signed the Declaration."

A shade of slight embarrassment crossed the lawyer's face.

"I own," he said, "that I value birth, but so do you, Lanley. You attach
importance to being a New York Lanley."

"I do," ans