" I really ought to go out there myself," she added,
sighing, as she sat back in the seat once more. " I've
been going to for a long time, but one is so busy in
New York. There is so much to do." The little
peevish, nervous lines came about her eyes and mouth.
" We really ought to keep track of them, I suppose,"
she continued. " They are good, well-meaning
people, and they do have a hard time."

" How is that? " he asked.
" Oh, they're so poor, you know," sighed Mrs.
Jones.
For a moment he did not answer.
" Yes, I suppose so," he said at last, and, with ap-
parent indifference, he turned the talk to other things.
Twice in the next few minutes she spoke of the
Wrights. She felt instinctively that the inferiority
of Mabel's family ought to be made clear to him. It
was an unreasoning instinct, and she followed it

1S6



THE YARDSTICK MAN



blindly. Each time, however, he checkmated her in
his good-humored, imperturbable way, and at last
she gave it up.
He was very unsatisfactory that morning. She
told him so more than once. She had planned it all
nicely, to have him talk to her of himself, to hear the
story of his experiences in the West. Instead, how-
ever, he leaned back, dreamily looking out at the
changing scene, commenting casually on this building
or that view, until she sulked ostentatiously and met
his comments with monosyllables. She found, how-
ever, that she only made herself uncomfortable by
this. He paid no attention to it. She therefore
changed her tactics, and became extremely voluble.
