oticism
that her parents were buying up stray copies at fabulous prices.

Then the conversation turned to the Horse Show, and for quite a while
they talked about who was going to wear what. Finally Oliver rose,
saying that they would have to get a bite to eat before leaving for the
Havens's. "You'll have a good time," said Reggie. "I'd have gone
myself, only I promised to stay and help Mrs. de Graffenried design a
dinner. So long!"

Montague had heard nothing about the visit to the Havens's; but now, as
they strolled down the Avenue, Oliver explained that they were to spend
the weekend at Castle Havens. There was quite a party going up this
Friday afternoon, and they would find one of the Havens's private cars
waiting. They had nothing to do meantime, for their valets would attend
to their packing, and Alice and her maid would meet them at the depot.

"Castle Havens is one of the show places of the country," Oliver added.
"You'll see the real thing this time." And while they lunched, he went
on to entertain his brother with particulars concerning the place and
its owners. John had inherited the bulk of the enormous Havens fortune,
and he posed as his father's successor in the Steel Trust. Some day
some one of the big men would gobble him up; meantime he amused himself
fussing over the petty details of administration. Mrs. Havens had taken
a fancy to a rural life, and they had built this huge palace in the
hills of Connecticut, and she wrote verses in which she pictured
herself as a simple shepherdess--and all that sort of stuff. But no one
minded that, because the place was grand, and there was always so much
to do. They had forty or fifty polo ponies, for instance, and every
spring the place was filled with polo men.

At the depot they caught sight of Charlie Carter, in his big red
touring-car. "Are you going to the Havens's?" he said. "Tell them we're
going to pick up Chauncey on the way."

"That's Chauncey Venable, the Major's nephew," said Oliver, as they
strolled to the train. "Poor Chauncey--he's in exile!"

"How do you mean?" asked Montague.

"Why, he daren't come into New York," said the other. "Haven't you read
about it in the papers? He lost one or two hundred thousand the other
night in a gambling place, and the district attorney's trying to catch
him."

"Does he want to put him in jail?" asked Montague.

"Heavens, no!" said Oliver. "Put a Venable in jail? He wants him for a
witness against the gam