Nor was he a mean antagonist in conversation. For Mr. Crabb had a slow and rather halting way of making the most trenchantly witty remarks, and a style exactly suited to the successful dinner table. And when a satiated society demanded something new it was to Crabb they turned for a suggestion. Mrs. Ryerson's Gainsborough ball, Jack Burrow's remarkable ushers' dinner, and the pet-dog tea at Mrs. Jennings' country place were fantasies of the mind of this Prester John of the effete. When to these remarkable talents is added a yacht and a hundred and fifty thousand a year, it is readily to be seen that Mr. Mortimer Crabb was a person of consequence, even in New York. Mr. Crabb scanned the headlines of the _Sun_, while McFee fastened his boots. But his eye fell upon an item that made him sit up straight and drop his monocle. "H--m!" he muttered in a strange tone. "So Dicky Bowles is coming home!" He peered at the item again and read, frowning. "Owing to the necessity for the immediate departure of the prospective groom for Europe, the marriage of Miss Juliet Hazard, daughter of Mr. Henry Hazard, to Mr. Carl Geltman will take place on Wednesday, June twentieth, instead of in October, the month at first selected." Crabb's expression had suddenly undergone a startling change, unknown in the Platonic purlieus of the Bachelors' Club. The brows tangled, the lower jaw protruded, while the feet which had languidly emerged from the dressing-room a few moments before, had partaken suddenly of the impulses which dominated the entire body. He rose abruptly and took a few rapid turns up and down the room. "So! They didn't dare wait! Poor little Julie! There ought to be better things in store for her than that! And Dicky won't be here until Thursday morning! It's too evident--the haste." He dropped into his chair, picked up the paper again, and re-read the item. June twentieth! And to-day was Sunday, June seventeenth! Geltman had taken no more chances than decency demanded. Crabb remembered the calamitous result of Hazard's ventures in Wall Street, and it was common gossip that, had it not been for Carl Geltman, the firm of Hazard and Company would long since have ceased to exist. It was easy to read between the lines of the newspaper paragraph. Between the ruin of her father's fortunes and her own, duty left Juliet Hazard no choice. And here was Dicky Bowles upon the ocean coming back to claim his own. It was monstrous. Mr. Crabb laid aside the paper and paced the floor again. Then walked to the window and presently found himself smiling down upon the hansom tops. "The very thing," he said. "The very thing. It's worth trying at any rate. Jepson will help. And what a lark!" And then aloud: "McFee," he called, "get me a hansom."