Miss Trevor?" Segur began as the whiskey and carbonic were set before them.

"A very attractive girl," said Howard.

"Yes--so a good many men have thought in the last five years. She's
marrying Teddy Danvers in the spring, I believe. At any rate it's generally
looked on as settled. Teddy's a good deal of a 'chump.' But he's a decent
fellow--good-looking, good-natured, domestic in his tastes, and nothing but
money."

Howard was smiling to himself. He understood Miss Trevor's sudden
consciousness of the nearness of the fire, her flush when Mrs. Sidney asked
about "Teddy," and the recklessness in her parting laugh.

"Well, Teddy's in luck," he said aloud.

"Not so sure of that. She's quite capable of leading him a dance if he
bores her. And bore her he will. But that is nothing new. This town is full
of it."

"Full of what?"

"Of weary women--weary wives. The men are hobby-riders. They have just one
interest and that usually small and dull--stocks or iron or real estate or
hunting or automobiles. Our women are not like the English women--stupid,
sodden. They are alive, acute. They wish to be interested. Their husbands
bore them. So--well, what is the natural temptation to a lazy woman in
search of an interest?"

"It's like Paris--like France?"