He gave his order to a passing boy, and this time Lorraine joined him. "Are you staying here for dinner?" Lorraine asked presently. Cameron nodded. "I'm dining with the Emersons--a sort of a pick-up crowd, I fancy--at least I'm a pick-up. I wasn't asked until about half an hour ago." "The Emersons sure are coming along," Lorraine remarked. "It's the gold key with them, all right--and they use it on every occasion. I venture they try for Burgoyne--he has just returned from abroad. He is sort of a celebrity, and a near-celebrity is better than nothing." Cameron smiled and drank his high-ball. He had heard Lorraine holding forth before on the Emersons and their kind. "Look at the old man there!" Lorraine went on. "He is a good-natured bounder--but he ought to be tending bar in a corner saloon rather than hob-nobbing here. And as for Mrs. Emerson!----" "How about the daughter?" Cameron inquired. "Except for her family, Miss Emerson is all right. Only I shouldn't want to marry her--I'd be afraid the children would breed back." "With grandpa's money, and the present day advantages and forced culture!" laughed Cameron. "I reckon not, my friend, I reckon not." One of the attendants approached with a telephone instrument and connected it with the wire at the side of the room. "Some one wants to talk to you, Mr. Lorraine," he said, placing the transmitter on the table and handing him the receiver. "Excuse me, Cameron!" said Lorraine. "Hello!" * * * * * * * * * * * "Yes, this is Mr. Lorraine." * * * * * * * * * * * "This evening--at seven-thirty!" * * * * * * * * * * * "Why--yes--I shall be very glad to!" * * * * * * * * * * * "Not at all--the pleasure is mine, I assure you." * * * * * * * * * * * "Yes--good-bye!" He put down the receiver and the man took the instrument away. "I'm elected!" he remarked. "To what?" "To Mrs. Emerson's pick-me-up." "Why didn't you decline?" Cameron asked. "Decline! How the devil could I decline--when she held me on the telephone! Damn the telephone, anyway." "It's the old game!" laughed Cameron. "A man is helpless when a woman gets him there. He would dine with his cook, or take the laundress to the theatre, if she asked him over the telephone." But to himself he was thinking: "Mrs. Emerson knows of that scene on the piazza and wants to have the most talked-of man in the Club at her table to-night. She is long for the main chance." IV A QUESTION OF FRIENDS