the same class with these rich fellers, not to belong to the Pacific-Union
Club, not to have polo ponies, not to belong to smart golf clubs, to the
Burlingame Club. Not to get clothes from New York and London--"

"You keep quiet," shrieked Alexina, who with difficulty refrained from
substituting: "You shut up." She flung off Aileen's hands. "What do you
know about him? He doesn't like you."

"Never had a chance to find out."

"What can you know about him, then?"

"Think I'm blind? Think I'm deaf? Don't I know everything that goes on in
this town? Isn't sizing-up my long suit? And he's as dull as--as a fish
without salt. I sat next to him at a dinner, and all he could talk about
was the people he'd met--our sort, of course. And he was dull even at that.
He's all manners and bluff--"

"You couldn't draw him out. He talked to me."

"What about? I'm really interested to know. Everybody says the same thing.
They fall for his dancing and manners, and--well, yes--I 'll admit it--for
his looks. He even looks like a gentleman. But all the girls say he bores
'em stiff. They have to talk their heads off. What did he say to you that
was so frantically interesting?"

"Well, of course--we danced most of the time."

"That's just it. He's inherited the shell of some able old ancestor and not
a bit of the skull furniture. Nature often plays tricks like that. But I