Cynthia leaned forward in all her richness and showed her knowledge of King Lear, which was recent. “And now our Jimmy joy, although the last, not least, what about you? We want to know, for Gratia is the King of France and I am Burgundy.” All eyes turned from Cynthia to Jimmy, while Marvin felt Burgundy’s right hand daringly press his left beneath the table-cloth. Jimmy took off his spotless glasses and rubbed them. “I don’t imagine I shall get home even at the holidays. Mr. Ferry has been good enough to ask me to come out to Chicago.” “Tip top!” cried Marvin. “I don’t imagine—” “But you do imagine. You imagine reapers and binders and three-point suspensions all safe for children to play with. When do you leave?” “As soon after commencement as possible.” “I congratulate you on Gratia’s friendship,” said Cynthia heartily. “I had very little to do with it,” answered Gratia coldly.—She sat with perfect self-possession, an exquisite girlish figure in a very simple and very expensive white dress.—“All that I did was to write a note. I wrote my father that Jimmy was the best all round man in the class of 1915.” Marvin threw her a kiss across the table. “You did just right! In five years Jimmy will be general manager of the Ferry plant.” Jimmy could always find his tongue when given undue credit. “I’m no mathematician at all when compared with Marvin, and I shall never be manager of the Ferry plant if I live to be a hundred.” Mrs. Hogg cut the mutual admiration short. She lifted her soup spoon and remarked, “I think we need not anticipate. Mr. Ferry is known to be a judge of men.” “He’s not a judge of Germans!” cried Cynthia. Mrs. Hogg pinched the soup spoon with her gouty fingers. “Cynthia, you are a young girl, and it ill becomes you to criticise a distinguished man of affairs. I abhor the Germans since what happened on the seventh of last month, but I don’t believe all that I read in the papers.” A moment of serious silence ensued, and then Mrs. Hogg tempered her rebuke. “Cynthia, you are carrying off all the honors in music. Won’t you play for us after dinner?” “Of course I will. But it is so warm that you folks had better sit out on the porch. Marvin will turn the leaves for me.” This was exactly what Mrs. Hogg wanted. In due time she led the way to the porch, to one end of which Jimmy immediately carried Gratia off.