ong all those
men,--those officers?" interrupted Mrs. Lawrence, with justifiable
wrath.

Elmendorf shrugged his shoulders. "Of course I ought not to betray my
hosts or give away their secrets, but do you suppose that there, any
more than among the loungers of the clubs, a woman's name is never
discussed?"

"I thought they prided themselves on being gentlemen," said Mrs.
Lawrence, wrathfully; "and gentlemen would never permit it."

"Ah, my dear madam, there's the trouble. A man is not necessarily a
gentleman because wealth and social position impel him to membership in
one of these forcing-houses of luxurious iniquity we call clubs, or
because four years in a West-Point monkey-jacket win him a commission as
a genteel loafer. A woman's name is held far less in reverence among
them than it is among the humblest of our masses. Oh, yes, I anticipate
your question," said he, at this juncture, with deprecatory gesture and
faint, significant smile. "True, I am not personally a member of any of
those clubs, nor do I wish to be, but I know men and mingle with them
elsewhere,--everywhere else, in fact. The roof of the club-house cloaks
their misdeeds, and worse things are said and done beneath it than
outside. As for officers, the only reason why there is apt to be a
stronger percentage of common decency among them is that they are chosen
from the masses of the people and sent to the Point simply to be
moulded, not reformed. Mr. Forrest is an example of the so-called
blue-blooded stock. His people are 'swells,' so to speak,--people whose
heads are held very high and their morals correspondingly low,--people
who think it condescension on their part to notice wage-workers except
as menials. Hence I am in no wise surprised to hear of him as I do, even
among those who are--well, of his own cloth."

"Surely, Mr. Elmendorf, the officers who have so often dined here do not
entertain ill opinions of Mr. Forrest. Such men as Colonel Kenyon,
Captain Waring, Major Cranston,--they have known him long and well, and
they speak of him, to us at least, most highly."

Again the significant shrug of Elmendorf's shoulders and the sneer in
his tone. "Oh, certainly," said he. "_Noblesse oblige_, or honor among
thieves, whichever maxim you choose. I doubt not that in his younger
days each of the eminently respectable trio you mention was no more a
model of morality than is Mr. Forrest. I have, indeed, heard as much of
Captain Waring; but one has