It appeared from Lena's answer that the young man was home far more frequently than his mother's finances could well afford. When he honored the Chamberlin roof with his presence, he generally managed to secure all the money within reach and to devote that money to sociological researches that kept him out until the lesser hours of the morning. These stubborn pursuits were, it seemed, highly disapproved of by both his mother and his sister, yet both his mother and his sister hated his father, the divorced husband of the remarried Mrs. Chamberlin; and as the son and brother constantly threatened that any interference would result in a transfer of his affectionate borrowings to the bank-account of his sire, both women were, during his intermittent residence with them, torn between their improbation of his pursuits and their fear that he would desert the maternal house for the paternal club. "What's his name?" asked Violet, as she lent a hand at the preparation of dinner. "Philip," answered Lena, "an' it ought to be Hungry Haakon." And yet, when the prodigal reached the house that evening and, admitting himself with his own latchkey, hurried into the library where his mother and sister, the former on the couch and the latter seated beside it, were awaiting the announcement that dinner was served, he would not have appeared, to any stranger that could see him, a much worse young man than most young men. "Hello!" he cried, kissing both women lightly on the cheek. "Sister more of a lure for susceptible hearts than ever!" "Much chance _I_ have!" murmured black-eyed Madelaine, brushing aside a careful blonde curl disordered by his onslaught. "And the _Mutter_ getting better every day," pursued the unabashed youth. "Your mother," said Mrs. Chamberlin, her heavy brows rising almost to the level of her lace cap, "will never be herself again, and you well know it." "Poof! A lean horse for a long race, _Mutter_." Mrs. Chamberlin waved a thin hand in dismissal of all discussion. "If you mean to dress for dinner," she said, "you had better begin, Philip." "No use. I have an engagement for to-night in circles where evening clothes are rarely considered quite proper, and I washed up at the club." "Oh, then you stopped there before coming to your home?" "It was on my way." "And you of course saw that terrible man?" This being the term in which Mrs. Chamberlin habitually referred to the husband that had been so wicked as to permit her, after her elopement with Chamberlin, to institute and win a suit for divorce, her son merely nodded. "But what's the use of bothering about that?" he demanded. "It was on the way, I tell you. Cheer up: one may smile and smile and be a woman still." But his hearers, by way of response to this advice, sighed audibly. "I don't think it was very considerate of you, Philip," vouchsafed the younger. "You must remember that when you got that last check from mother----" "Madelaine!" cautioned Mrs. Chamberlin.