fashioned——’Patience，wifeofEdwinSmith。’IonlymentionthistoshowyouhowlittleDadtalksabouthimself，butitwasoddIshouldfinditoutthatway，wasn’tit？Butthere！Idon’tsupposeyou’reinterestedintheSmithgenealogy。Iapologize。Ineverthinkofdiscussingmyfamilyaffairswithanyonebutyou，notevenSam。Butyou——well，somehowIseemtotellyoueverything。Iwonderwhy？“
“PerhapsbecauseIasktoomanyquestions。“
“No，itisn’tthat。Itisbecauseyouactasifyoureallycaredtohavemetalkaboutmyownaffairs。Inevermetagirlbeforethatdid。Now，Iwanttoaskyouaboutthatclubbusiness。There’sgoingtobethedeuceandalltopayinthatifI’mnotcareful。
Haveyouthoughtitover？WhatwouldyoudoifyouwereI？“
Thematterinquestionwasasomewhatdelicateandcomplicatedone，dealingwiththeadmissionorrejectionofacertainfellowtooneoftheHarvardsocieties。Therewasastronginfluenceworkingtogethiminand，ontheotherhand，thereweresomeverygoodobjectionstohisadmission。Crawford，presidentoftheclubandoneofitsmostinfluentialmembers，wasundecidedwhattodo。HehadexplainedthecasetoMaryupontheoccasionofhismostrecentvisittothePinckneyStreethouse，andhadaskedheradvice。Shehadtakentimeforconsideration，ofcourse——shewastheoldMary’-