The girl blushed at her indiscretion. "I kind of thought—she seemed to be, well, fond of you. I mean, the way she looked at you, I didn’t know but what you were married. I hope you’ll excuse me." She was visibly confused, and evidently had said much more than she had intended. "My dear," Granthope replied, "she’s far too good for me!" The girl shook her head slowly, as she rose to go. A smile struggled to her face as if, for the first time, she noted the incongruity of the palmist’s costume, then, with a grateful look she went out. As soon as he had left, Granthope sat down at the desk and wrote a note upon a memorandum pad. It read: Fancy— To-morrow morning please go down to the ticket office at the Ferry, and see if you can find out where a soldier, with his nose shot off, bought a ticket to, about ten days ago. He rose, yawned, stared thoughtfully at the cast; for a few moments, then snapped his fingers and walked to the window. His cab was waiting. He went down-stairs, got into the vehicle and drove off. The Maxwells lived at Presidio Heights, in one of the newer residences of the aristocratic Western Addition, a handsome brick house decorated with Romanesque fantasies in terra cotta, behind a bronze rail guarded by heraldic griffins. Granthope walked up under the lantern-hung awning five minutes before the hour and was shown to a room up-stairs. Here there were several men waiting and adjusting their garments. All but one were in Chinese costume; this was a fat, red-faced man, with a white mustache. He was in evening dress, and kept exclaiming: "I won’t make a damned fool of myself for anybody. It’s all nonsense!" He was obviously embarrassed at being the only nonconformist. "Sully" Maxwell, arrayed in a magnificently embroidered Chinese officer’s summer uniform—a long, flounced robe, with the imperial dragons and their balls of fire, the rainbow border and the all-over cloud-pattern—was helping the men to dress, chaffing each of them in turn. He was middle-aged and prosperous-looking, typically a "man’s man" and "hail-fellow-well-met," despite his immense fortune. He greeted Granthope cordially, without hint of patronage, and introduced him to the others.