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 took a place in accordance with his instructions and watched the people who entered.

Two women, both wearing mourning veils, and a girl of twenty came in: they seemed uncertain as to the propriety of conversing with an acquaintance whom they met and finally, after a few whispered words, took seats apart from the others and one of the women sank to her knees in prayer. Two well-dressed men of about fifty took seats together, speaking to no one and avoiding encounters; one wore in his buttonhole the tiny rosette of the Legion of Honor; several other men and women, all strangers to Barney, filed in; then a couple of fashionably gowned girls of about Ethel Carew's age, but not at all suggesting her in bearing or manner, found places near Barney and audibly discussed the question of smoking there; they dismissed this idea, amid giggles, and began gossiping in exclamatory whispers about the people appearing in the doorway. Barney overheard the names of men and women, not personally known to him but prominent in the business and social life of the city; thus he soon heard, "Mr. Jaccard!" and saw the thin, dignified and Puritanical-looking figure of Lucas Cullen's lawyer.

Jaccard gazed over the assemblage deliberately before choosing a chair about a dozen feet from Barney's corner. Five minutes later, the girls' voices exclaimed, "Why, there's Bennet—and his mother—and old Mr. Cullen!"

They stood in the doorway, Bennet a little nervous and impatient to be seated; beside him a well-gowned, graciously assured woman of middle age; and next her was the tall dominating figure of Lucas Cullen, Senior. He was gazing critically about the room and objected stubbornly when Bennet tried to lead him; he chose