ot remember; but some
men who had dined too freely had made the wager, and this boy sitting
beside her had accepted it--and won it, by bringing into the sacred
precincts of the Patroons Club a foolish, shameless girl disguised in a
man's evening dress.

That was bad enough; that somebody promptly discovered it was worse; but
worst of all was the publicity, the club's name smirched, the young man
expelled from one of the two best clubs in the metropolis.

To read of such things in the columns of a daily paper had meant little
to her except to repell her; to hear it mentioned among people of her
own sort had left her incurious and indifferent. But now she saw it in
a new light, with the man who had figured in it seated beside her. Did
such men as he--such attractive, well-bred, amusing men as he--do that
sort of thing?

There he sat, hat off, the sun touching his short, thick hair which
waved a little at the temples--a boyish mould to head and shoulders, a
cleanly outlined check and chin, a thoroughbred ear set close--a good
face. What sort of a man, then, was a woman to feel at ease with? What
eye, what mouth, what manner, what bearing was a woman to trust?

"Is that the kind of man you are, Mr. Siward?" she said impulsively.

"It appears that I was; I don't know what I am--or may be."

"The pity of it!" she said, still swayed by impulse. "Why did you
do--didn't you know--realize what you were doing--bringing discredit on
your own club?"

"I was in no condition to know, Miss Landis."

The crude brutality of the expression might merely have hurt or
disgusted her had she been less intelligent. Nor, as it was, did she
fully understand why he chose to use it--unless that he meant it in
self-punishment.

"It's rather shameful!" she said hotly.

"Yes," he assented; "it's a bad beginning."

"A--beginning! Do you mean to go on?"

He did not reply; his head was partly turned from her. She sat silent
for a while. The dog had returned to lie at Siward's feet, its brown
eyes tirelessly watching the man it had chosen for its friend; and
the man, without turning his eyes, dropped one hand on the dog's head,
caressing the silky ears.

Some sentimentalist had once said that no man who cared for animals
could be wholly bad. Inexperience inclined her to believe it. Then too,
she had that inclination for overlooking offences committed against
precept, which appears to be one of those edifying human traits peculiar
to neith