business at dinner. It is worse than polo!"

She swept his face with a glance of distrust, the lids of her eyes half
lowered, as if to put a barrier between them.

"Yes," Sommers assented; "it is harder to understand."

It was curious, he thought, that a woman could take on the new rights, the
aristocratic attitude, so much more completely than a man. Miss Hitchcock
was a full generation ahead of the others in her conception of inherited,
personal rights. As the dinner dragged on, there occurred no further
opportunity for talk until near the end, when suddenly the clear, even
tones of Miss Hitchcock's voice brought his idle musing to an end.

"I hope you will talk with Dr. Lindsay. He is a very able man. And," she
hesitated a moment and then looked frankly at him, "he can do so much for a
young doctor who has his way to make."

"Don't you think that might make it harder for me to talk to him?" Sommers
asked, irritated by her lack of tact.

The girl's face flushed, and she pressed her lips together as if to push
back a sharp reply.

"That is unfair. We are going now--but sometime we must talk it out."

The men stretched themselves and rearranged their chairs in little groups.
Parker Hitchcock, Carson, and young Porter--were talking horses; they made
no effort to include the young doctor in their corner. He was beginning to
feel uncomfortably stranded in the middle of the long room, when Dr.