Why did that special young man have to be treated like a young prince, may I ask? Is he a special pet of yours? I thought he was rather rude to you.”

“Because, Adella, he represents an important experiment I am making in the office. I have searched a long time to find just the right young fellow who would combine keenness, caution, and conservatism to serve my purpose, and I particularly wanted to see how he would react in a home situation. If Reva had cooperated with me it would have been a great help, but since she didn’t seem to understand the situation, I suppose it can’t be helped. It was not a situation that called for a definitely hostile attitude on the part of anybody, and that was the way that Reva acted during the early part of the dinner. I did not ask him here to see how well he could flirt, and Reva’s idea seems to be that if a young man doesn’t immediately fall for her and start a violent flirtation that he is a boor. I am ashamed of her. She is trying to make out that the young man has no ability, and he has, definitely.”

“Why, yes, Harris, I suppose he has. He really talked quite well when he got to describing war scenes abroad. And he seems to have a good education,” said Mrs. Chalmers, trying to smooth her husband’s ruffled feathers, and at the same time placate her child. “Reva, why can’t you call up your devoted friend next door and get him to come and make up a game with us? It isn’t really so late, you know.”

With a frown the head of the house growled, “All right.” He told himself he ought to have known better than to drag family into his business affairs. His daughter was a selfish little fool, and he ought not to have expected anything of her that would really count, and as for his wife, she always did take Reva’s part. But it was strange they didn’t take to the boy, he was so good looking, and he had thought they looked so interested when the young man was talking. Perhaps it was only chagrin on Reva’s part that the young man didn’t fall for her right away. Well, what difference did it make? It would all work out, and perhaps the young man’s diffidence was due to his long stay in the atmosphere of war. It had made him shy. But that would soon wear off, of course, given the right atmosphere. There were two or three nice girls, secretaries, down at the office. When he got to know them, that diffidence would wear off. But he definitely wanted him to be able to work among cultured people, quiet elderly people with money to invest, and perhaps granddaughters to win over, and he had thought a course with Reva would well prepare him to go among people of that sort.

It was a pity that Harris Chalmers couldn’t have had a closer acquaintance with the older Madisons, and he would have seen that the young man he was seeking to train for his own purposes had been all his life under finer cultural advantages than he himself had ever had. He had seen them in church, of course, but the Madisons were not people to push themselves into notice, and they had never been prominent socially; neither did their plain, quiet garb call attention to themselves or stamp them as being “smart.”

But Mr. Chalmers had never taken in the fact that there was a higher culture than the kind that mere money and social standing could buy, and so he felt it incumbent upon him to train this young man for the position in which he was choosing to place him for his own ends.

Meantime Paige, on his homeward way, had an uncomfortable feeling that he had not measured up to what Mr. Chalmers had expected. Yet it was that girl that had made the whole situation, and her father must have known it. He showed plainly that he did not want her barging in when they were talking business. And they had scarcely got started. He tried to think back over the few sentences that had been said, and he couldn’t for the life of him be sure just what they portended or how they had been going to end, and again, as after his first meeting with the board, he had that uncomfortable feeling that he wished he were out of this thing entirely. At least he was thankful that this evening’s experience was over. But also he had a conviction that his boss was not altogether pleased with the outcome either. Well, perhaps that was just as well.