after the guests had departed.

"You are clever, arn't you?" said Gallagher, bitingly.

"That's living with you," retorted the H.M.J., who was not easily put
down.

"Then you see that you treat Stirling as if he was somebody. He's
getting to be a power in the ward, and if you want to remain Mrs.
Justice Gallagher and spend eight thousand--and pickings--a year, you
see that you keep him friendly."

"Oh, I'll be friendly, but he's awful dull."

"Oh, no, mamma," said Monica. "He really isn't. He's read a great many
more French books than I have."

Peter lunched with the wholesale provision-dealer as planned. The lunch
hour proving insufficient for the discussion, a family dinner, a few
days later, served to continue it. The dealer's family were not very
enthusiastic about Peter.

"He knows nothing but grub talk," grumbled the heir apparent, who from
the proud altitude of a broker's office, had come to scorn the family
trade.

"He doesn't know any fashionable people," said one of the girls, who
having unfulfilled ambitions concerning that class, was doubly
interested and influenced by its standards and idols.