t out yonder. In any case, he's in one
sense in reasonably good company. Did you send your son to Sandhurst
or an English university?"

"I didn't," said the man, gazing at her with hot, confused anger in
his eyes. "For one thing, he hadn't brains enough, and, for another,
there were too many charges on the property. What do you mean by good
company?"

"Just a moment before I answer. Why did you turn him out?"

"That does not describe it. He went. We had a difference of opinion.
He would hear no reason."

"Exactly," said Miss Weston, who now appeared close by. "Since you
seem to have heard a little about the matter, I feel I must say that
my brother deliberately left us at a time when his father had expected
him to be of service to him."

Ida did not know whether the others could hear what was being said, as
there was a strip of lawn between them and where she sat, but she felt
that it did not greatly matter. She had no pity for this man or his
daughter, who preferred to malign the absent rather than to admit an
unpleasant fact. She would strip them of any solace they might find in
shams, after which there was a little more to be said.

"The difference of opinion was, I believe, decided with a
riding-crop," she said. "Still, that is a side issue, and I will tell
you what I meant by good company. We have quite a few of your
graduates out yonder laying railroad ties, as well as lawyers who have
got into trouble over trust money, and army men who couldn't meet
their turf debts or were a little too smart at cards. Some of them are
of unexceptionable family--at least from your point of view. As a
rule, they sleep packed like cattle in reeking redwood shacks, and
either dress in rags or mend their own clothes. Among their companions
are ranchers who can't live all the year on the produce of their
half-cleared land, absconders from half the Pacific Slope cities, and
runaway sailormen. The task set before them every morning would kill
most of you."

Weston, who had winced once or twice, glanced apprehensively toward
the rest. They were sitting very still, and their appearance suggested
that, whether warrantable or not, they were listening.

"His insane folly has brought him down to that?" he asked.

Ida straightened herself a little, with a sparkle in her eyes.

"I don't think there has been any very great descent," she went on.
"You must try to realize that those men are not wastrels now, however
they may have live