"I'll see you soon again, no doubt, Mr. Craig," said Miss Severence, polite but not cordial, as she extended her hand. "Yes," replied Craig, holding the hand, and rudely not looking at her but at Arkwright. "You've interrupted us in a very interesting talk, Grant." Grant and Margaret exchanged smiles, Margaret disengaged her hand, and the two men went. As they were strolling down the drive, Grant said: "Well, what did you think of her?" "A nobody--a nothing," was Craig's wholly unexpected response. "Homely--at least insignificant. Bad color. Dull eyes. Bad manners. A poor specimen, even of this poor fashionable society of yours. An empty-head." "Well--well--WELL!" exclaimed Arkwright in derision. "Yet you and she seemed to be getting on beautifully together." "I did all the talking." "You always do." "But it was the way she listened. I felt as if I were rehearsing in a vacant room." "Humph," grunted Arkwright. He changed the subject. The situation was one that required thought, plan. "She's just the girl for Josh," said he to himself. "And he must take her. Of course, he's not the man for her. She couldn't care for him, not in a thousand years. What woman with a sense of humor could? But she's got to marry somebody that can give her what she must have.... It's very important whom a man marries, but it's not at all important whom a woman marries. The world wasn't made for them, but for US!" At Vanderman's that night he took Mrs. Tate in to dinner, but Margaret was on his left. "When does your Craig make his speech before the Supreme Court?" asked she. He inspected her with some surprise. "Tuesday, I think. Why?" "I promised him I'd go." "And will you?" "Certainly. Why not?" This would never do. Josh would get the impression she was running after him, and would be more contemptuous than ever. "I shouldn't, if I were you." "Why not?" "Well, he's very vain, as you perhaps discovered. He might misunderstand." "And why should that disturb me?" asked she, tranquilly. "I do as I please. I don't concern myself about what others think. Your friend interests me. I've a curiosity to see whether he has improved in the last two or three years as much as he says he has." "He told you all about himself?" "Everything--and nothing." "That's just it!" exclaimed Arkwright, misunderstanding her. "After he has talked me into a state of collapse, every word about himself and his career, I think it all over, and wonder whether there's anything to the man or not. Sometimes I think there's a real person beneath that flow of vanity. Then, again, I think not." "Whether he's an accident or a plan," mused the young woman; but she saw that Arkwright did not appreciate the cleverness and the penetration of her remark. Indeed, she knew in advance that he would not, for she knew his limitations. "Now," thought she, "Craig would have appreciated it--and clapped me on the arm--or knee." "Did you like Josh?" Grant was inquiring. "Very much, indeed."