Mr. Tucker felt like laughing outright but he had an ax to grind and Hiram G. Parker was to turn the wheel, so he bridled his inclination. He had asked the society man to be his guest for the week-end, intimating that he had a favor to ask of him. Parker accepted, as he had an idea he would, since the summer was none too full of invitations with almost no one in town. His position in the bank held him in town and he must also hold the position, since it was through it he was enabled to belong to all the clubs and to have pressed suits for all occasions. He had no idea what the favor was but he liked to keep in with these newspaper chaps since it was through the newspapers, when all was told, that he had attained his success, and through the society columns of those dailies that he kept in the public eye. He liked Jeffry Tucker, too, for himself. There was something so spontaneous about him. With all of Hiram Parker's society veneer there was a human being somewhere down under the varnish and a heart, not very big, but good of its kind. On the train en route to Greendale Mr. Tucker had divulged what that favor was. He led up to it adroitly so that when he finally reached it Mr. Parker was hardly aware of the fact that he had arrived. "Long list of debutantes this season, I hear," he started out with, handing an excellent cigar to his guest. "Yes, something appalling!" answered Mr. Parker, settling himself comfortably in the smoker after having taken off his coat and produced a pocket hanger to keep that garment in all the glory of a recent pressing. "I see many hen parties in prospect. There won't be near enough beaux to go round." "So I hear, especially since the militia has been ordered to the border. So many dancing men are in the Blues. I heard today that young Lane is off. He is Robert Carter's assistant and since Carter has been out of the running has been endeavoring to keep the business going. I fancy it will be a blow to the Carters that he has had to go." "Yes, too bad! Quite a dancing man! He will be missed in the germans." Jeffry Tucker smiled as he had been thinking the Carters might miss the assistance that Lane rendered their father, but since Mr. Parker's mind ran more on germans than on business that was, after all, what he was bringing him up to Greendale for. "Lewis Somerville has enlisted, too." "You don't say! I had an idea when he left West Point he would be quite an addition to Richmond society." "I think Mrs. Carter thought he would be of great assistance to her eldest daughter," said Mr. Machiavelli Tucker. "Oh, I hadn't heard that one of Robert Carter's daughters was to make her debut. I haven't seen her name on the list. Is she a good looker?" "Lovely and very sweet! I think it is a pity for her to come out and not be a success, but her mother is determined that she shall enter the ring this winter."