him over. He had replied at once, naming his train.
He was an exact man and expected method and precision in others. She
didn't exactly know how it might affect him if his reasonable demand was
unsatisfied. She did not know him very well yet, only well enough to be
aware that he was a gentleman so precisely, so judiciously constructed,
that, contemplating his equitable perfections, her awe and admiration
grew as one on whom dawns the exquisite adjustments of an almost human
machine.

And, thinking of him now, she again made up her mind to give him the
answer which he now had every reason to expect from her. This decision
appeared to lubricate her conscience; it ran more smoothly now, emitting
fewer creaks.

"You say that you know Mr. Quarrier?" she began thoughtfully.

"Not well."

"I--hope you will like him, Mr. Siward."

"I do not think he likes me, Miss Landis. He has reasons not to."

She looked up, suddenly remembering: "Oh--since that scrape? What
has Mr. Quarrier to do--" She did not finish the sentence. A troubled
silence followed; she was trying to remember the details--something she
had paid small attention to at the time--something so foreign to her,
so distant from her comprehension that it had not touched her closely
enough for her to remember exactly what this young man might have done
to forfeit the good-will of Howard Quarrier.

She looked at Siward; it was impossible that anything very bad could
come from such a man. And, pursuing her reasoning aloud: "It couldn't
have been very awful," she argued; "something foolish about an actress,
was it not? And that could not concern Mr. Quarrier."

"I thought you did know; I thought you--remembered--while you were
driving me over from the station--that I was dropped from my club."

She flushed up: "Oh!--but--what had Mr. Quarrier to do with that?"

"He is a governor of that club."

"You mean that Mr. Quarrier had you--dropped?"

"What else could he do? A man who is idiot enough to risk making his
own club notorious, must take the consequences. And they say I took that
risk. Therefore Mr. Quarrier, Major Belwether--all the governors did
their duty. I--I naturally conclude that no governor of the Patroons
Club feels very kindly toward me."

Miss Landis sat very still, her small head bent, a flush still
brightening her fair face.

She recalled a few of the details now--the scandal--something of the
story. Which particular actress it was she could n