what the dickens does it
amount to? They spend their whole life running in useless circles. I
should think they'd get sick of it. You will."

"Hardly, Billum," she smiled. "We're merely making up for two years of
isolation. I think we must be remarkable people that we didn't fight
like cats and dogs. For eighteen months, you know, there wasn't a soul
to talk to, and not much to think about except what you could do if you
were some place else."

"You're acquiring the atmosphere," he remarked--sardonically, she
thought.

"No; just enjoying myself," she replied lightly.

"Well, if you really are," he answered slowly, "we may as well settle
here for the winter--and get settled right away. I'm rather weary of
being a guest in another man's house, to tell you the truth."

"Why, I'd love to stay here all winter," she said. "But I thought you
intended to knock around more or less."

"But don't you see, you don't particularly care to," he pointed out;
"and it would spoil the fun of going any place for me if you were not
interested. And when it comes to a show-down I'm not aching to be a
bird of passage. One city is pretty much like another to me. You seem
to have acquired a fairly select circle of friends and acquaintances,
and you may as well have your fling right here. We'll take a run over
to New York. I want to get some books and things. Then we'll come
back here and get a house or a flat. I tell you right now," he laughed
not unpleasantly, "I'm going to renig on this society game. You can
play it as hard as you like, until spring. I'll be there with bells on
when it comes to a dance. And I'll go to a show--when a good play
comes along. But I won't mix up with a lot of silly women and equally
silly she-men, any more than is absolutely necessary."

"Why, Bill!" she exclaimed, aghast.

"Well, ain't it so?" he defended lazily. "There's Kitty Brooks--she
has certainly got intelligence above the average. That Lorimer girl
has brains superimposed on her artistic temperament, and she uses 'em
to advantage. Practically all the rest that I've met are intellectual
nonentities--strong on looks and clothes and amusing themselves, and
that lets them out. And they have no excuse, because they've had
unlimited advantages. The men divide themselves into two types. One
that chases the dollar, talks business, thinks business, knows nothing
outside of business, and their own special line of business at that;