speak of
him about town you wouldn't call him nice. He has money, and he's in the
swim, but he's a beast, all the same."

"Oh, Barney, you mustn't say so!" cried Iola, "for you know he's been a
great friend to me. He has been very kind. I am quite devoted to him."
Something in the tone of her voice, and more in the smile which she gave
Barney, took the sting out of her words.

Before many minutes had passed the little group was broken up, chiefly
because of the fact that Iola was soon surrounded by a circle of her own
admiring friends, and among them the most insistent was Dr. Bulling,
who finally, with bluff, good-natured but almost rude aggressiveness,
carried her off to the tearoom. It took all the joy out of the day for
Barney, and on his behalf, for Margaret and Dick, that for the rest of
the afternoon Iola's attention was entirely absorbed by Dr. Bulling and
his little coterie of friends.

And this feeling of disappointment in Iola and of resentment against
Dr. Bulling he carried with him to a little stag dinner by the hospital
staff at the Olympic that evening. The dinner was due chiefly to the
exertions of Dr. Trent, and was intended by him not only to bring into
closer touch with each other the members of the hospital staff, but also
to be a kind of introduction of Barney to the inner circle of medical
men in the city. For the past year Barney had acted as his clerk, almost
as his assistant, and, indeed, Dr. Trent had made the formal proposition
of an assistantship to him. Out of compliment to Barney, Dick had
been invited, and young Drake also, who owed his parchment that day
to Barney's merciless grinding in surgery, and perhaps more to his
steadying friendship. Dr. Bulling, who, more for his great wealth and
his large social connection than for his professional standing, had been
invited, was present with Foxmore, Smead, and others who followed him
about applauding his coarse jokes and accepting his favours. The dinner
was purely informal in character, the menu well chosen, the wines
abundant, and the drinking hard enough with some, with the result that
as the dinner neared its end the men, and especially the group about
Bulling, became more and more hilarious. Barney, who was drinking water
and keeping his hand upon Drake's wineglass, found his attention divided
between his conversation with Trent and the talk of Bulling, who, with
his friends, sat across the table. As this group became more boisterous,