"Politics, politics!" Sommers exclaimed awkwardly. "Who is the man with Mr.
Porter?"

"Railway Gazette Carson? That's what he is called. He swallows
railroads--absorbs 'em. He was a lawyer. They have a house on the North
Side and a picture, a Sargent. But I'll keep the story. Come! you must meet
Mrs. Lindsay."

"Politics, politics!" Sommers murmured to himself, as Miss Hitchcock moved
across the room.




CHAPTER IV

At the table there were awkward silences, followed by spasmodic local
bursts of talk. Sommers, who sat between Miss Hitchcock and Mrs. Lindsay,
fell to listening to his host.

"I was taken for you to-day, Brome," Mr. Hitchcock said, with a touch of
humor in his voice.

Porter laughed at the apparent absurdity of the accusation.

"I was detained at the office over at the yards. The men and the girls had
pretty nearly all gone. I was just about to leave, when a fellow opened the
door--he looked like a Swede or a Norwegian.

"'Is the boss here?' he asked.