hey met constantly in a business and social way. But since Lester
had moved out to Hyde Park, the old intimacy had lapsed. Now they came
face to face on Michigan Avenue near the Kane building.

"Why, Lester, I'm glad to see you again," said Dodge.

He extended a formal hand, and seemed just a little cool. "I hear
you've gone and married since I saw you."

"No, nothing like that," replied Lester, easily, with the air of
one who prefers to be understood in the way of the world sense.

"Why so secret about it, if you have?" asked Dodge, attempting to
smile, but with a wry twist to the corners of his mouth. He was trying
to be nice, and to go through a difficult situation gracefully. "We
fellows usually make a fuss about that sort of thing. You ought to let
your friends know."

"Well," said Lester, feeling the edge of the social blade that was
being driven into him, "I thought I'd do it in a new way. I'm not much
for excitement in that direction, anyhow."

"It is a matter of taste, isn't it?" said Dodge a little absently.
"You're living in the city, of course?"

"In Hyde Park."

"That's a pleasant territory. How are things otherwise?" And he
deftly changed the subject before waving him a perfunctory
farewell.

Lester missed at once the inquiries which a man like Dodge would
have made if he had really believed that he was married. Under
ordinary circumstances his friend would have wanted to know a great
deal about the new Mrs. Kane. There would have been all those little
familiar touches common to people living on the same social plane.
Dodge would have asked Lester to bring his wife over to see them,
would have definitely promised to call. Nothing of the sort happened,
and Lester noticed the significant omission.

It was the same with the Burnham Moores, the Henry Aldriches, and a
score of other people whom he knew equally well. Apparently they all
thought that he had married and settled down. They were interested to
know where he was living, and they were rather disposed to joke him
about being so very secretive on the subject, but they were not
willing to discuss the supposed Mrs. Kane. He was beginning to see
that this move of his was going to tell against him notably.

One of the worst stabs--it was the cruelest because, in a way,
it was the most unintentional--he received from an old
acquaintance, Will Whitney, at the Union Club. Lester was dining there
one evening, and Whitney met him in the main reading