cal student whose faith in the good, the true, the profitable, had annoyed him at Digamma Pi. He made his response as hearty as he could:
"Well, well, what you doing here, Irve?"
"Why, I'm settled here. Been here ever since internship. And got a nice little practise, too. Look, Mart, Mrs. Watters and I want you and your wife—I believe you are married, aren't you?—to come up to the house for dinner, to-morrow evening, and I'll put you onto all the local slants."
The dread of Watters's patronage enabled Martin to lie vigorously:
"Awfully sorry—awfully sorry—got a date for to-morrow evening and the next evening."
"Then come have lunch with me to-morrow at the Elks' Club, and you and your wife take dinner with us Sunday noon."
Hopelessly, "I don't think I can make it for lunch but—Well, we'll dine with you Sunday."
It is one of the major tragedies that nothing is more discomforting than the hearty affection of the Old Friends who never were friends. Martin's imaginative dismay at being caught here by Watters was not lessened when Leora and he reluctantly appeared on Sunday at one-thirty and were by a fury of Old Friendship dragged back into the days of Digamma Pi.
Watters's house was new, and furnished in a highly built-in and leaded-glass manner. He had in three years of practise already become didactic and incredibly married; he had put on weight and infallibility; and he had learned many new things about which to be dull. Having been graduated a year earlier than Martin and having married an almost rich wife, he was kind and hospitable with an emphasis which aroused a desire to do homicide. His conversation was a series of maxims and admonitions:
"If you stay with the Department of Public Health for a couple of years and take care to meet the right people, you'll be able to go into very lucrative practise here. It's a fine town—prosperous—so few dead beats.
"You want to join the country club and take up golf. Best opportunity in the world to meet the substantial citizens. I've picked up more than one high-class patient there.
"Pickerbaugh is a good active man and a fine booster but he's got a bad socialistic tendency. These clinics—outrageous—the people that go to them that can afford to pay! Pauperize
