little beyond their income. The women were well-dressed, vivacious, somewhat shrill. They liked stories that were a little off-colour. “Blue,” one of the men called these stories. He was in the theatrical business. The men were, for the most part, a rather drab-looking lot. Colourless, good-natured, open-handed. Almost imperceptibly the Crowd began to use Ray as a target for a certain raillery. It wasn’t particularly ill-natured, and Ray did not resent it.

“Oh, come on, Ray! Don’t be a wet blanket� . Lookit him! I bet he’s thinking about those smoked glasses again. Eh, Atwater? He’s ina daze about that new rim that won’t show on the glasses. Come out of it! First thing you know you’ll lose your little Cora.”

There was little