ad often felt--the longing to
step aside from the struggle for vain things, the longing to turn from
the smoke and grime of the conflict to the quiet and peace of the
valley. Now I voiced that longing too, forgetting Mrs. Bannister and
her evident creed that man's chief end was to know the right people.

"It would be living, indeed," I said with enthusiasm. "More than once
I have been on the point of going back to stay. I don't suppose you
ever knew my old friend Stacy Shunk, did you? When it comes to real
wisdom I'd rather talk to Stacy Shunk than----"

Mrs. Bannister had half risen--I thought in horror. It was really the
butler who had brought my eulogy of Stacy Shunk to a sudden close, for,
appearing in half-drawn portieres, he announced: "Mr. Talcott."

The mere entrance of Mr. Talcott carried us far from the valley and
such rude associates as old Bill Hansen and his kind. I think that
even Rufus Blight would have been too discreet to refer to them in his
presence--for Penelope's sake, if nothing else. He was a slender young
man of medium height, clean-shaven, perfectly groomed, and perfectly
mannered. He was as much at ease as I had been ill at ease, and I
envied him for it. He declined tea because he had just come from the
club, and I envied him this delightful way of avoiding cake and
embarrassing crumbs. Mrs. Bannister addressed him as Herbert, and I
knew at once that he was Edward Herbert Talcott, whose name I had often
seen in my paper-reading task. His claim to distinction was descent
from the man whose name he bore, a member of the cabinet of one of our
early presidents. A dead statesman in a family is always a valuable
asset, and the longer dead the better. Statesmen, like wines, must be
hidden away in vaults long years to be properly mellowed for social
uses. I think that Mr. Secretary Talcott would have been astonished,
indeed, could he have measured his influence after a century by the
numbers, collateral and direct, who were proud to use his name. There
were Talcott Joneses, and Talcott Robinsons, and Talcott Browns by the
score in town, but one and all they acknowledged the primacy of this
Edward Herbert Talcott, and never lost an opportunity of speaking of
him as their cousin. He had written, I learned afterward, a monograph
on his great-grandfather, which had given him a certain literary
distinction in his own set, and it was generally understood that, while
he might easily have ear