"You're growing very handsome, you know, boy," she said. "Almost too
handsome. A man doesn't need good looks. They're almost a handicap. Look
at your father."

"They haven't hurt him any, I should say."

"I don't know." She reflected, eyeing her cigaret. "He presumes on them,
rather. And a good many men never think a handsome man has any brains."

"Well, he fools them there, too."

She raised her eyebrows slightly.

"Tell me about the new plant, Graham."

"I don't know anything about it yet," he said bluntly. "And you wouldn't
be really interested if I did."

"That's rather disagreeable of you."

"No; I'm just trying to talk straight, for once. We--you and I--we
always talk around things. I don't know why."

"You look terribly like your father just now. You are quite savage."

"That's exactly what I mean, mother. You don't say father is savage.
God knows he isn't that. You just say I act like father, and that I am
savage."

Natalie blew a tiny cloud of cigaret smoke, and watched it for a moment.

"You sound fearfully involved. But never mind about that. I daresay I've
done something; I don't know what, but of course I am guilty."

"Why did you bring Marion here to-day, mother?"

"Well, if you want to know exactly, I met her coming out of church, and
it occurred to me that we were having rather a nice luncheon, and
that it would be a pity not to ask some one to come in. It was a nice
luncheon, wasn't it?"

"That's why you asked her? For food?"

"Brutally put, but correct."

"You have been asking her here a lot lately. And yet the last time we
discussed her you said she was fast. That she wanted to marry me for my
money. That people would laugh if I fell for it."

"I hardly used those words, did I?"

"For heaven's sake, mother," he cried, exasperated. "Don't quibble.
Let's get down to facts. Does your bringing her here mean that you've
changed your mind?"

Natalie considered. She was afraid of too quick a surrender lest he grow
suspicious. She decided to temporize, with the affectation of frankness
that had once deceived Clayton, and that still, she knew, affected
Graham.

"I'll tell you exactly," she said, slowly. "At first I thought it was
just an infatuation. And--you really are young, Graham, although you
look and act like such a man. But I feel, now that time has gone on and
you still care about her, that after all, your happiness is all that
matters."

"Mother!"

But she held up her ha