He attacked the subject of Social Inequality with unbounded enthusiasm.

He devoured, rather than read, and emerged from the affair, his mind a confused jumble of conflicting notions, sick with over-effort, raging against injustice and oppression, and with not one sane suggestion as to remedy or redress.
The butt of his cigarette scorched his fingers and roused him from his brooding.

In the act of lighting another, he glanced across the room and was surprised to see two very prettily dressed young women in the company of an older gentleman, in a long frock coat, standing before Hartrath's painting, examining it, their heads upon one side.
Presley uttered a murmur of surprise.

He, himself, was a member of the club, and the presence of women within its doors, except on special occasions, was not tolerated.

He turned to Lyman Derrick for an explanation, but this other had also seen the women and abruptly exclaimed: "I declare, I had forgotten about it.