Nevertheless, the next day being a Saturday and half holiday the year round in this concern, Mr. Whiggam camethrough with the pay envelopes.

　　"Here you are, Mr. Griffiths," he said, as though he were especially impressed with Clyde's position.

　　Clyde, taking it, was rather pleased with this mistering, and going back toward his locker, promptly tore it openand pocketed the money. After that, taking his hat and coat, he wandered off in the direction of his room, wherehe had his lunch. But, being very lonely, and Dillard not being present because he had to work, he decided upona trolley ride to Gloversville, which was a city of some twenty thousand inhabitants and reported to be as active,if not as beautiful, as Lycurgus. And that trip amused and interested him because it took him into a city verydifferent form Lycurgus in its social texture.

　　But the next day--Sunday--he spent idly in Lycurgus, wandering about by himself. For, as it turned out, Dillardwas compelled to return to Fonda for some reason and could not fulfill the Sunday understanding. EncounteringClyde, however, on Monday evening, he announced that on the following Wednesday evening, in the basementof the Diggby Avenue Congregational Church, there was to be held a social with refreshments. And according toyoung Dillard, at least this promised to prove worth while.

　　"We can just go out there," was the way he put it to Clyde, and buzz the girls a little. I want you to meet myuncle and aunt. They're nice people all right. And so are the girls. They're no slouches. Then we can edge outafterwards, about ten, see, and go around to either Zella or Rita's place. Rita has more good records over at herplace, but Zella has the nicest place to dance. By the way, you didn't chance to bring along your dress suit withyou, did you?" he inquired. For having already inspected Clyde's room, which was above his own on the thirdfloor, in Clyde's absence and having discovered that he had only a dress suit case and no trunk, and apparently nodress suit anywhere, he had decided that in spite of Clyde's father conducting a hotel and Clyde having worked inthe Union League Club in Chicago, he must be very indifferent to social equipment. Or, if not, must beendeavoring to make his own way on some character-building plan without help from any one. This was not tohis liking, exactly. A man should never neglect these social essentials. Nevertheless, Clyde was a Griffiths andthat was enough to cause him to overlook nearly anything, for the present anyhow.

　　"No, I didn't," replied Clyde, who was not exactly sure as to the value of this adventure--even yet--in spite of hisown loneliness,--"but I intend to get one." He had already thought since coming here of his lack in this respect,and was thinking of taking at least thirty-five of his more recently hard-earned savings and indulging in a suit ofthis kind.

　　Dillard buzzed on about the fact that while Zella Shuman's family wasn't rich--they owned the house they livedin--still she went with a lot of nice girls here, too. So did Rita Dickerman. Zella's father owned a little cottage upon Eckert Lake, near Fonda. When next summer came--and with it the holidays and pleasant week-ends, heand Clyde, supposing that Clyde liked Rita, might go up there some time for a visit, for Rita and Zella wereinseparable almost. And they were pretty, too. "Zella's dark and Rita's light," he added enthusiastically.

　　Clyde was interested by the fact that the girls were pretty and that out of a clear sky and in the face of his presentloneliness, he was being made so much of by this Dillard. But, was it wise for him to become very muchinvolved with him? That was the question--for, after all, he really knew nothing of him. And he gathered fromDillard's manner, his flighty enthusiasm for the occasion, that he was far more interested in the girls as girls--acertain freedom or concealed looseness that characterized them--than he was in the social phase of the worldwhich they represented. And wasn't that what brought about his downfall in Kansas City? Here in Lycurgus, ofall places, he was least likely to forget it-- aspiring to something better as he now did.

　　None-the-less, at eight-thirty on the following Wednesday evening--they were off, Clyde full of eageranticipation. And by nine o'clock they were in the midst of one of those semi-religious, semi-social and semi-emotional church affairs, the object of which was to raise money for the church--the general service of whichwas to furnish an occasion for gossip among the elders, criticism and a certain amount of enthusiastic, ifdisguised courtship and flirtation among the younger members. There were booths for the sale of quiteeverything from pies, cakes and ice cream to laces, dolls and knickknacks of every description, supplied by themembers and parted with for the benefit of the church. The Reverend Peter Isreals, the minister, and his wifewere present. Also Dillard's uncle and aunt, a pair of brisk and yet uninteresting people whom Clyde could sensewere of no importance socially here. They were too genial and altogether social in the specific neighborhoodsense, although Grover Wilson, being a buyer for Stark and Company, endeavored to assume a serious andimportant air at times.

　　He was an undersized and stocky man who did not seem to know how to dress very well or could not afford it. Incontrast to his nephew's almost immaculate garb, his own suit was far from perfect-fitting. It was unpressed andslightly soiled. And his tie the same. He had a habit of rubbing his hands in a clerkly fashion, of wrinkling hisbrows and scratching the back of his head at times, as though something he was about to say had cost him greatthought and was of the utmost importance. Whereas, nothing that he uttered, as even Clyde could see, was of theslightest importance.

　　And so, too, with the stout and large Mrs. Wilson, who stood beside him while he was attempting to rise to theimportance of Clyde. She merely beamed a fatty beam. She was almost ponderous, and pink, with a tendency toa double chin. She smiled and smiled, largely because she was naturally genial and on her good behavior here,but incidentally because Clyde was who he was. For as Clyde himself could see, Walter Dillard had lost no timein impressing his relatives with the fact that he was a Griffiths. Also that he had encountered and made a friendof him and that he was now chaperoning him locally.

　　"Walter has been telling us that you have just come on here to work for your uncle. You're at Mrs. Cuppy's now,I understand. I don't know her but I've always heard she keeps such a nice, refined place. Mr. Parsley, who liveshere with her, used to go to school with me. But I don't see much of him any more. Did you meet him yet?""No, I didn't," said Clyde in return.

　　"Well, you know, we expected you last Sunday to dinner, only Walter had to go home. But you must come soon.

　　Any time at all. I would love to have you." She beamed and her small grayish brown eyes twinkled.

　　Clyde could see that because of the fame of his uncle he was looked upon as a social find, really. And so it waswith the remainder of this company, old and young--the Rev. Peter Isreals and his wife; Mr. Micah Bumpus, alocal vendor of printing inks, and his wife and son; Mr. and Mrs. Maximilian Pick, Mr. Pick being a wholesaleand retail dealer in hay, grain and feed; Mr. Witness, a florist, and Mrs. Throop, a local real estate dealer. Allknew Samuel Griffiths and his family by reputation and it seemed not a little interesting and strange to all ofthem that Clyde, a real nephew of so rich a man, should be here in their midst. The only trouble with this wasthat Clyde's manner was very soft and not as impressive as it should be--not so aggressive and contemptuous.

　　And most of them were of that type of mind that respects insolence even where it pretends to condemn it.

　　In so far as the young girls were concerned, it was even more noticeable. For Dillard was making this importantrelationship of Clyde's perfectly plain to every one. "This is Clyde Griffiths, the nephew of Samuel Griffiths, Mr.

　　Gilbert Griffiths' cousin, you know. He's just come on here to study the collar business in his uncle's factory."And Clyde, who realized how shallow was this pretense, was still not a little pleased and impressed by the effectof it all. This Dillard's effrontery. The brassy way in which, because of Clyde, he presumed to patronize thesepeople. On this occasion, he kept guiding Clyde here and there, refusing for the most part to leave him alone foran instant. In fact he was determined that all whom he knew and liked among the girls and young men shouldknow who and what Clyde was and that he was presenting him. Also that those whom he did not like should seeas little of him as possible--not be introduced at all. "She don't amount to anything. Her father only keeps a smallgarage here. I wouldn't bother with her if I were you." Or, "He isn't much around here. Just a clerk in our store."At the same time, in regard to some others, he was all smiles and compliments, or at worst apologetic for theirsocial lacks.

　　And then he was introduced to Zella Shuman and Rita Dickerman, who, for reasons of their own, not the leastamong which was a desire to appear a little wise and more sophisticated than the others here, came a little late.

　　And it was true, as Clyde was to find out afterwards, that they were different, too--less simple and restricted thanquite all of the girls whom Dillard had thus far introduced him to. They were not as sound religiously andmorally as were these others. And as even Clyde noted on meeting them, they were as keen for as close anapproach to pagan pleasure without admitting it to themselves, as it was possible to be and not be marked forwhat they were. And in consequence, there was something in their manner, the very spirit of the introduction,which struck him as different from the tone of the rest of this church group--not exactly morally or religiouslyunhealthy but rather much freer, less repressed, less reserved than were these others.

　　"Oh, so you're Mr............