It was on the polo-field, however, that Jack was at his best. No man who hopes to keep up with the fashions can afford to become too much interested in any single sport, for presently the fad will alter, and he must perforce abandon the old delights; but polo held its own very well, and it was evidently the thing in which Jack reveled most. He was the leading player not of his club only, but of all the clubs about. His stud of polo-ponies was selected with more care than has often gone to the making of a state constitution, for the matters that are really important must be attended to with zeal, while public politics may be expected more or less to take care of themselves. His friends wondered how Neligage contrived to get hold of ponies so valuable, or how he was able to keep so expensive an outfit after he had obtained it; but everybody was agreed that he had a most wonderful lot. The question of how he managed might have been better understood by any one who had chanced to overhear a conversation between Jack and Dr. Wilson, which took place just before luncheon that day. Dr. Wilson was chairman of the board of managers of the club. He was a man who had come into the club chiefly as the husband of Mrs. Chauncy Wilson, a lady whose stud was one of the finest in the state, and he was somewhat looked down upon by the men of genuine old family. He was good-humored, however; shrewd if a little unrefined; and he had been rich long enough to carry the burden of his wife's enormous fortune without undue self-consequence. To-day it became his duty to talk to Jack on an unpleasant matter of business. "Jack," he said, "I've got to pitch into you again." "The same old thing, I suppose." "Same old thing. Sometimes I've half a mind to resign from the club, so as to get rid of having to drub you fellows about your bills." Jack gnawed his mustache, twisting his cigar in his fingers in a way that threatened to demolish it altogether. "I've told you already that I can't do anything until--" "Oh, I know it," Wilson broke in. "I'm satisfied, but the committee is getting scared. The finances of the club are in an awful mess; there's no denying that. Some of the men on the committee, you see, are afraid of being blamed for letting the credits run on so." Jack did not take advantage of the pause which gave him an opportunity to speak, and the other went on again. "I'm awfully sorry, old man; but there's got to be an end somewhere, and nobody's been given the rope that you have." "I can resign, of course," Jack said shortly. "Oh, dry up that sort of talk! Nobody'd listen to your resigning. Everybody wants you here, and we couldn't spare you from the polo team." "But if I can't pay up, what else can I do?" "But you can't resign in debt, man." Jack laughed with savage amusement. "What the devil am I to do? I can't stay, and I can't leave. That seems to be about the size of it."