I passed as quickly as I could. The spectacle
was--of course I make allowances for Vane-Basingwell's ignorance of
our standards--it was nothing short of disgusting; a man of his
position consorting with the herd!"
"He told me no longer ago than this morning," I said, "that he was
going to take up America."
"He _has_!" said Belknap-Jackson with bitter emphasis. "You
should see what he has on--a cowboy hat and chapps! And the very
lowest of them are calling him 'Judge'!"
"He flunked a meeting of the Onwards and Upwards Society," I added.
"I know! I know! And who could have expected it in one of his lineage?
At this very moment he should be conducting himself as one of his
class. Can you wonder at my impatience with the West? Here at an hour
when our social life should be in evidence, when all trade should be
forgotten, I am the only man in the town who shows himself in a
tea-room; and Vane-Basingwell over there debasing himself with our
commonest sort!"
All at once I saw that I myself must bear the brunt of this scandal. I
had brought hither the Honourable George, promising a personage who
would for once and all unify the North Side set and perhaps
disintegrate its rival. I had been felicitated upon my master-stroke.
And now it seemed I had come a cropper.
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