ound to suppress him. The sudden hush and
the conscious manner of those in the group would have conveyed the
information even if the words had not.

"So you're giving us the once over, are you?" Cosden demanded, dropping
into a chair. "You don't mean to say that the golf autobiographies have
become exhausted?"

"I never heard myself publicly discussed," added Huntington as he, too,
joined the party. "I am already experiencing a thrill of pleasurable
excitement. Don't stop. Connie and I are really keen to learn more of
ourselves."

"Well," the speaker replied, with some hesitation, "there's no use
trying to make you believe we were listening to Baker's explanation of
how the bunkers have been located exactly where the golf committee knows
his ball is going to strike--"

"Heaven forbid!" Huntington exclaimed; "but don't apologize. I
congratulate the Club that the members are at last turning their
attention to serious things. 'Tell the truth and shame the
devil'--provided it is Connie, and not me, you are going to shame."

"Don't mind me in the least," Cosden added. "My hide is tough, and I
rather like to be put through the acid test once in a while."

"Oh, it isn't as bad as all that," the speaker explained. "We love you
both, but in different ways, yet we can't make out just where you two
fellows hitch up. Now, that isn't _lese-majeste_, is it?"

"What do you think, Connie?" Huntington asked, lighting his pipe. "Is
that an insult or a compliment?"

"I don't see that it makes much difference from this crowd. We don't
care what they say about us as long as they pay us the compliment of
noticing us. That's the main point, and I'm glad we've been able to
start something."

"But why don't you tell us?" insisted the speaker. "You aren't
interested in anything Monty cares for except golf, and he hasn't even a
flirting acquaintance with business, which is your divinity, yet you two
fellows have formed a fine young Damon and Pythias combination which we
all envy. Why don't you tell us how it happened?"

"I don't know," Cosden answered, serious at last and speaking with
characteristic directness. "I never stopped to think of it; but if we're
satisfied, whose concern is it, anyhow?"

"If friendship requires explanation, then it isn't friendship," added
Huntington. "Connie contributes much to my life which would otherwise be
lacking, and I hope that he would say the same of my relation to him."

"Of course--that goes