eventful."

Bellowing indignantly, Starrett charged into the hallway, followed by
Payson. Presently the outer door slammed violently behind them.
Wherry lingered.

Carl glanced curiously at his flushed and boyish face.

"Well?" he queried lightly.

Wherry colored.

"Carl," he stammered, "you've been talking a lot about parasites
to-night and I'd like you to know that--money hasn't made a jot of
difference to me." He met Carl's laughing glance with dogged
directness and for a second something flamed boyishly in his face from
which Carl, frowning, turned away.

"Why don't you break away from this sort of thing, Dick?" he demanded
irritably. "Starrett and myself and all the rest of it. You're
sapping the splendid fires of your youth and inherent decency in unholy
furnaces. Yes, I know Starrett drags you about with him and you
daren't offend him because he's your chief, but you're clever and you
can get another job. In ten years, as you're going now, you'll be an
alcoholic ash-heap of jaded passions. What's more, you have infernal
luck at cards and you haven't money enough to keep on losing so
heavily. Half of the poker sermons Starrett's been growling about were
preached for you."

Now there were mad, irreverent moments when Carl Granberry delivered