approaching the manner in which he would have repelled a blasphemy, "not to refer to Philadelphia as—er—What was your most extraordinary word?" "'Dinky,' if my recollection serves." "Ah, precisely. I am not sure as to the meaning of the term but I conceive it to be something opprobrious. You can say what you like about me and mine, but Philadelphia, no." "Oh, the town's right enough," returned his brother, not at all impressed. "I'm talking about people now. There are just as fine men and women in the west as in New York or Philadelphia." "I am sure you don't mean to be offensive, Robert, but really the association of ideas in[Pg 35] your mention of us with that common and vulgar New York is er—unpleasant," fairly shuddered the elder Maitland. [Pg 35] "I'm only urging you to recognize the quality of the western people. I dare say they are of a finer type than the average here." "From your standpoint, no doubt," continued his brother severely and somewhat wearily as if the matter were not worth all this argument. "All that I want of them is that they stay in the west where they belong and not strive to mingle with the east; there is a barrier between us and them which it is not well to cross. To permit any intermixtures of er—race or—" "The people out there are white, Steve," interrupted his brother sardonically. "I wasn't contemplating introducing Enid here to Chinese, or Negroes, or Indians, or—" "Don't you see," said Mr. Stephen Maitland, stubbornly waving aside this sarcastic and irrelevant comment, "from your very conversation the vast gulf that there is between you and me? Although you had every advantage in life that birth can give you, we are—I mean you have changed so greatly," he had quickly added, loath to offend. But he mistook the light in his brother's eyes, it was a twinkle not a flash. Robert Maitland[Pg 36] laughed, laughed with what his brother conceived to be indecorous boisterousness. [Pg 36] "How little you know of the bone and sinew of this country, Steve," he exclaimed presently. Robert Maitland could not comprehend how it irritated his stately brother to be called "Steve." Nobody ever spoke of him but as Stephen Maitland—"But Lord, I don't blame you," continued the Westerner. "Any man whose vision is
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