"Perhaps it ought, Mr. Cosden, but that is just the point,--it doesn't; and the first thing Mr. Huntington would tell you is that the two don't mix. Here are two distinct worlds which touch each other very closely; the one admits the other to a certain extent, the other never admits the one." "Then the wife won't do it?" "Not alone. Many a wife has accomplished for her husband what he never could have gained for himself, but only when the man has permitted her to teach him how to leave his business behind him when he leaves his office. Business plays its part in the social world, but it is one of those polite amenities not to recognize the machinery which makes society possible." Cosden moved uncomfortably in his chair. "I'm not a climber," he said. "I haven't any desire to force myself in where I'm not wanted; but here I am, a member of some of the best clubs in my own city, recognized in the business world, and acquainted with every one who is worth knowing. Until within twenty-four hours I supposed that I was as much a part of the social organization as I chose to be,--no more, no less. Now, the best friend I have in the world tells me point blank that the very thing I supposed was most to my credit is a bar across the path I have elected to take. I'm not ready yet to admit it. Monty says that I've lost something, but he's wrong: apparently the attributes he has in mind I never even possessed." "Then the more reason to exert yourself until you do possess them." "But if I lack them, why haven't I felt the lack before?" he appealed. "I'm thrown all the time with the very men on whom the social life of Boston rests." "Where, if I may ask?" "In business, and at my clubs." "But not in their homes?" Edith pursued. "No," Cosden admitted; "there has never been any reason to meet them there." Edith folded her work deliberately and looked squarely at her companion. "My friend," she said with decision, "'the time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things.' Some one must set you right. You have too much knowledge in other directions to be so childlike in this. If you still look upon me as confidential adviser, I'll appoint myself that one." "I should be eternally grateful."