on."

After that she didn't enter the conversation much, and again George
sensed, with a reluctant thrill, a maternal daring in her heart for him.

"You never ought to have gone back in the second half," Betty said.

"If I hadn't," he laughed, "who would have taken care of Lambert Planter
for you?"

"Squibs says you might have been killed."

"He's a great romancer," George exploded.

"Just the same, it was splendid of you to play at all."

She touched the white bandage about his head.

"Does it hurt a great deal?"

"No," he said, nearly honestly. "I only let them keep me here to cut
some dull lectures."

He glanced at Betty wistfully.

"Did I take care of Lambert Planter as you wanted?"

She glanced away.

"Are you punishing me? Haven't you read the papers? You outplayed him
and every man on the field."

"That was what you wished?"

She turned back with an assumption of impatience.

"What do you mean?"

He couldn't tell her. He couldn't probe further into her feelings for
Lambert, her attitude toward himself. He had to get his mind in hand
again.

Betty brought her mother one day. Mrs. Alston was full of praise, but
she exuded an imperial distaste for his sick-room. Both times he had to
overcome an impulse to beg Betty not to go so soon. That more than
anything else made him afraid of himself. It was, he felt, an excellent
change to escape to an active life.

Blodgett's place gave him a massive, tasteless welcome. It was one of
those houses with high, sloping roofs, numerous chimneys, and much
sculptured stone, slightly reminiscent of Mansart, and enormously
suggestive of that greatest architect of all, the big round dollar. In
its grounds it fitted like a huge diamond on a flowered shirt-front.
There were terraces; and a sunken garden, a little self-conscious with
coy replicas of regency sculpture; and formal walks between carefully
barbered trees and hedges. It convinced George that his original choice
of three necessities had been wise. Blodgett had the money, but he
didn't have Squibs Bailly and Goodhue or the things they personified.
And how Blodgett coveted The Goodhue Quality! George told himself that
was why he had been asked, because he was so close to Goodhue. But
Blodgett let him see that there was another motive. After those games
George was temporarily one of the nation's famous men.

It wasn't until he had arrived that George understood how near
Blodgett's place was to Oakmont--n