In the midst of her flippant laughter, Gerty turned on him the open cynicism of her smile.
"Now is it possible that Perry has that effect on you ?" she asked with curiosity.

"For I find him decidedly depressing." "Then if it isn't Perry I demand the name," persisted Adams gayly, "though I'm perfectly ready to wager that it's Arnold Kemper." "Kemper," repeated Laura curiously, as if the name arrested her almost against her will.

"Wasn't there a little novel once by an Arnold Kemper--a slight but striking thing with very little grammar and a great deal of audacity ?" "Oh, that was done in his early days," replied Adams, "as a kind of outlet to the energy he now expends in racing motors.

I asked Funsten, who does our literary notices, if there was any chance for him again in fiction, and he answered that the only favourable thing he could say of him was to say nothing." "But he's gone in for automobiles now," said Gerty, "they're so much bigger, after all, he thinks, than books." "I haven't seen him for fifteen years," remarked Adams, "but I recognise his speech." "One always recognises his speeches," admitted Gerty, "there's a stamp on them, I suppose, for somehow he himself is great even if his career isn't--and, after all," she concluded seriously, "it is--what shall I call it--the personal quantity that he insists on." "The personal quantity," repeated Laura laughing, and, as if the description of Kemper had failed to interest her, she turned the conversation upon the subject of Trent's play..