Chapter II


Many things were puzzling in Fairbridge, that is, puzzling to a
person with a logical turn of mind. For instance, nobody could say
that Fairbridge people were not religious. It was a church going
community, and five denominations were represented in it;
nevertheless, the professional expounders of its doctrines were held
in a sort of gentle derision, that is, unless the expounder happened
to be young and eligible from a matrimonial point of view, when he
gained a certain fleeting distinction. Otherwise the clergy were
regarded (in very much the same light as if employed by a railroad)
as the conductors of a spiritual train of cars bound for the Promised
Land. They were admittedly engaged in a cause worthy of the highest
respect and veneration. The Cause commanded it, not they. They had
always lacked social prestige in Fairbridge, except, as before
stated, in the cases of the matrimonially eligible.

Dominie von Rosen came under that head. Consequently he was for the
moment, fleeting as everybody considered it, in request. But he did
not respond readily to the social patronage of Fairbridge. He was,
seemingly, quite oblivious to its importance. Karl von Rosen was
bored to the verge of physical illness by Fairbridge functions. Even
a church affair found him wearily to the front. Therefore his
presence at the Zenith Club was unprecedented and confounding. He had
often been asked to attend its special meetings but had never
accepted. Now, however, here he was, caught neatly in the trap of his
own carelessness. Karl von Rosen should have reflected that the
Zenith Club was one of the institutions of Fairbridge, and met upon a