able.

"A superb conception. My dear Dr. Magnus, I must beg of you to enroll
Mr. Thorp and myself at once. Believe me that we are not unworthy of a
place in your galaxy of dark stars."

Dr. Magnus walked to the table and took up his pen. "This gentleman?"
he began, inquiringly, and looked at me.

"An unfortunate affair of the heart," answered Indiman--an exquisite
piece of audacity at which I frowned, and then perforce had to smile.
"It comes within your rule, I trust?"

"For limited membership only," answered Dr. Magnus. "In fact, we rather
discourage victims of sentimental reverses, it being invariably
impossible to determine whether the transaction is finally to show a
profit or a loss. Then, too, the quick recoveries--but we'll let it
stand at that. Now, with yourself?"

"I," said Indiman, gravely, "am a mathematician by instinctive
preference and early training, but I have never been able to cross the
'Ass's Bridge,' the Forty-seventh problem of Euclid. Incidentally, I
may mention that I am a golf-player with a handicap of eighteen."

"A double first," commented the proprietor of the Utinam Club. "I
perceive, Mr. Indiman, that you are bent upon amusing yourself; and
since circumstances have undeniably favored you, you may continue to do
so. But not at my expense," and thereupon he mentioned a figure for
initiation and dues that made me sit up. But Indiman settled without
flinching; he happened to have his check-book with him, and the
remaining formalities were quickly discharged.

"And now, gentlemen, let me show you about the club," said Dr. Magnus,
affably. "Will you be good enough to follow me?"

He led the way into the hall, and thence into the cloister-like passage
communicating with the "House in the Middle of the Block." I glanced
out at the court-yard as we passed a window; it was most ingeniously
planned to take the utmost advantage of its limited area. An antique
Italian fountain occupied a niche in the opposite wall, and on either
side were sedilia flanked by bay-trees in tubs and two or three fine
specimens of the Japanese dwarf oak. A bas-relief in plaster of the
Elgin marbles ran friezelike the full length of the party wall, and
fixed immediately above the fountain niche the terrible mask of the
Medusa face looked down upon us. The time of the year being late in
March, there was no snow upon the ground, and I could see that the
ground of the court-yard was divided into four garden-beds, separ