Swept away by the creative impulse, he got off the electric car, without vexation, two blocks beyond his crossing.
He found a number of persons in the Morse home.

Ruth's two girl-cousins were visiting her from San Rafael, and Mrs.Morse, under pretext of entertaining them, was pursuing her plan of surrounding Ruth with young people.

The campaign had begun during Martin's enforced absence, and was already in full swing.

She was making a point of having at the house men who were doing things.

Thus, in addition to the cousins Dorothy and Florence, Martin encountered two university professors, one of Latin, the other of English; a young army officer just back from the Philippines, one-time school-mate of Ruth's; a young fellow named Melville, private secretary to Joseph Perkins, head of the San Francisco Trust Company; and finally of the men, a live bank cashier, Charles Hapgood, a youngish man of thirty-five, graduate of Stanford University, member of the Nile Club and the Unity Club, and a conservative speaker for the Republican Party during campaigns--in short, a rising young man in every way.