you find her interesting?"

"Quite. She struck me as very intelligent." He had no wish to repeat
the conversation about Cytherea. It was queer, that; the more he
considered it the more significant it appeared to be. "Did it seem to
you," he asked, "that Peyton was very attentive?"

"I didn't have time to notice. Do you think it's true about her getting
all that money? It looks almost wicked to me, with so many people
needing just a little. But anybody could see that she thinks only of
herself; I don't mean she isn't charitable, but in--in other ways."

They were late, and the main floor was being emptied of a small crowd
moving into the dining-room. There the long table of the club dinner
reached from end wall to wall; and, with the scraping of chairs, a
confusion of voices, the places were filled. Lee found himself between
Bemis Fox, a younger girl familiar enough at the dances but whose
presence had only just been recognized, and Mrs. Craddock, in Eastlake
for the winter. Anette was across the board, and her lips formed the
query, "The first dance?"

Lee Randon nodded; he was measurably fond of her; he usually enjoyed a
party at which he found Anette. That she liked him was very evident;
not desperately, but enough to dispose of most restraint; she repeated
to Lee what stories, formal and informal, men told her, and she asked
his advice about situations always intimate and interesting.

The flood of voices, sustained on cocktails, rose and fell, there were
challenges down the length of the table and quickly exchanged
confidences. Bemis, publicly ingenuous, laid a light eager hand on his