"Tell you what," said J. B.'s next neighbour confidentially, "Johns is about as full as I like to see him; it don't take much, you know. He's just good and jolly now, but if he gets much more----" He shook his head dubiously. "Say, have you heard anything more about the colonel? I saw Gwynne Peters on the street to-day----" "Hock or madeira, sir?" said Huddesley in J. B.'s ear. "Hock, sir? Yes, sir." "It seems the Pallinders--I don't care, hock, I guess. What's the difference anyhow? I don't know one of these wines from the other." "What about the Pallinders _now_?" asked J. B. At that very moment, the length of the table away, Archie Lewis was saying, "Suppose you've heard that about Gwynne Peters, Doctor?" Doctor Vardaman set down his glass with unusual emphasis. "That's the third or fourth time this week that I've heard 'that about Gwynne Peters,'" said he. "And in spite of it, I've never found out yet what 'that about Gwynne Peters' is!" "_What!_ Didn't you _know_? Why, I thought somehow you knew all about the Gwynnes. Haven't you heard about the fuss with Pallinder and all?" The doctor shook his head, and motioned to Huddesley for fresh glasses. "Never saw anything like the way the boys are getting through the wine," was his inward comment. "And how warm they all look!" Then aloud: "So _that's_ the reason Gwynne dropped out of the play; I thought it a little odd when he declined my dinner," he said, fixing a thoughtful gaze on Archie. "There's been a fuss with the Colonel, has there? What was it about?" He fully expected to hear Archie say, "Why, you know old Steven Gwynne----" had done this or that. But the young man only looked at him inquiringly. "I thought you always knew all there was to know about the Gwynnes," he repeated. "Templeton, their agent, has a desk with us--do you know _him_?" "No--yes, I've seen him. He's short and stout and wears spectacles, doesn't he?" "Yes, that's Templeton. You must have heard father's stories about him and the Gwynnes; he has this little real-estate business, and scratches along somehow, I believe the Gwynne estate's the biggest part of it. Father says it's no trouble at all now compared to what it was before Gwynne Peters took hold; father says there were two or three years when Gwynne was away, before he got through Harvard, you know, when Templeton's life wasn't worth living." "Well, I never understood that Gwynne managed the estate personally," said the doctor, recalling, however, a recent scene in his library with considerable interest.