"Don't mind me in the least," Cosden added. "My hide is tough, and I rather like to be put through the acid test once in a while." "Oh, it isn't as bad as all that," the speaker explained. "We love you both, but in different ways, yet we can't make out just where you two fellows hitch up. Now, that isn't _lèse-majesté_, is it?" "What do you think, Connie?" Huntington asked, lighting his pipe. "Is that an insult or a compliment?" "I don't see that it makes much difference from this crowd. We don't care what they say about us as long as they pay us the compliment of noticing us. That's the main point, and I'm glad we've been able to start something." "But why don't you tell us?" insisted the speaker. "You aren't interested in anything Monty cares for except golf, and he hasn't even a flirting acquaintance with business, which is your divinity, yet you two fellows have formed a fine young Damon and Pythias combination which we all envy. Why don't you tell us how it happened?" "I don't know," Cosden answered, serious at last and speaking with characteristic directness. "I never stopped to think of it; but if we're satisfied, whose concern is it, anyhow?" "If friendship requires explanation, then it isn't friendship," added Huntington. "Connie contributes much to my life which would otherwise be lacking, and I hope that he would say the same of my relation to him." "Of course--that goes without saying; but neither one of you is telling us anything. If you would explain your method perhaps we might become more reconciled to some of these misfits lying around the Club--like Baker over there--" "We have a thousand members--" Baker protested. "What has that to do with the present discussion?" "Why pick on me?" "Which is the misfit in my combination with Monty?" Cosden demanded. "I'm not labeling you fellows," the speaker disclaimed--"I couldn't if I tried; but each of you is so different from the other that such a friendship seems inconsistent." There was a twinkle in Huntington's eye as he listened to the persistent cross-examination. "We are bachelors," he said quietly. "That should explain everything; for what is a bachelor's life but one long inconsistency? If our friends were all alike what would be the need of having more than one? This friend gives us confidence in ourselves, another gives us sympathy; this friend gives us the inspiration which makes our work successful, another is the balance-wheel which prevents us from losing the benefit which success brings us. Each fills a separate and unique place in our lives, and, after all, the measure of our life-work is the sum of these friendships."