"You have studied him to advantage. Are you sure you have not stolen a
leaf from him?"

"Dr. Kemp!" she exclaimed in pouting reproach, "do I appear as promiscuous
as that? You may call me a 'blue book,' but spare my snobbery the
opprobrious epithet of 'directory.' There goes the fascinating young Mrs.
Shurly with Purcell Burroughs in her toils. Did you catch the fine oratory
of the glance she threw us? It said, 'Dorothy Gwynne, how dare you
appropriate Dr. Kemp for ten long minutes? Hand him over; pass him around.
I want him; you are only boring him, though you seem to be amusing
yourself."

Kemp's grave lips twitched at the corners; he was without doubt amused.

"Aren't you improvising?" he asked. A man need only offer an occasional
bumper of a remark to keep the conversation from flagging, when his
companion is a woman.

"No; you evidently do not know what a feminine sneer is in words. Ah, here
comes the Queen of Sheba." She broke off with a pleased smile as Ruth
Levice approached on the arm of her cousin, Louis Arnold.

Singly, each would have attracted attention anywhere; together they were
doubly striking-looking. Arnold, tall and slight, carrying his head high,
fair of complexion as a peachy-cheeked girl, was a peculiarly
distinguished-looking man. The delicate pince-nez he wore emphasized
slightly the elusive air of supercilious courtliness he always conveyed.
Now, as he spoke to Ruth, who, although a tall girl, was some inches
shorter than he, he maintained a strict perpendicular from the crown of his
head to his heels, only looking down with his eyes. Short women resented