out a welcoming hand.

"Ah, Dick," she said, "you are at home at last. How good it is to see
you! When did you come?"

"Last night. Mother sent me over here to-day with the promise that I
should see you--and Madeline." His eyes traveled to the girl beyond.
"And this, Mrs. Lenox, Miss Elton, is my good friend, Norris. You
already know that we were lovely together in college, and in life we
hope not to be divided. You'll be good to him, won't you?"

In Mrs. Lenox's greeting there was that mixture of kindliness with
shrewd instant analysis that becomes a habit with women of the world,
and Norris stiffened with fresh realization that he was raw and
unaccustomed to her suave atmosphere. He would have liked to be his best
self before Percival's friends, and he felt like an oyster. Even the
gentle eyes of Miss Elton seemed to measure him. Fortunately they
thought chiefly of Dick, and when did Dick's facile tongue fail him?

"Of course this would be the first spot on which to reappear. No one but
Mr. Early would dare to give a reception in July," Mrs. Lenox
exclaimed.

"And the absurd thing," Dick retorted, "is that you all come--back into
town, leaving birds and waters--at Mr. Early's bidding."

"Yes, my respect for my sex rises when I see them so eager to prostrate
themselves before a simple seeker after truth with a turban and a ruby.
A turban and a ruby do so illuminate the search for truth!"

"You are a scoffer," laughed Dick. "Why are you here?"

"Foolish one, I came to scoff. I must see all there is to be seen. If
there is an apple to be bitten, I must bite. I have floated in with the
flood and out with the ebb of almost every fad from crystal-gazing to
bridge. I always hope that one of them is going to be worth while."

"But you can't call the Swami's philosophy 'a fad'," objected Norris.

"No, perhaps that wasn't fair. Ram Juna is really very celestial in a
ponderous kind of way, isn't he? When he talked the simple old truths I
liked him, but not in the esoteric explanations and profounder
mysteries. I have chased Mystery for more years than I shall own, and,
so far as I can see, whenever you open the door on her secret chamber,
she shuts a door on the other side and is gone into a further holy of
holies. I've come to disbelieve in those who tell me that they have
caged her at last."

"That's what I say," exclaimed Dick. "A man knows too much when he tells
you that Mystery is five feet three, weighs a hundr