“As far as the luncheon goes, it’s rather a joke, isn’t it,” said his hostess, “that it should be an Oriental cook who has so caught the true Gallic accent?  I’ll tell Tojiko to tell Yoshido that his efforts weren’t lost on you.  He adores cooking for you.  No, you speak about it yourself.  Here comes Tojiko with the mail.”

She reached for the Herald with one hand, and with the other gave Sylvia a letter with the American postmark.  “Oh, Tojiko,” said Morrison with the familiarity of an habitue of the house, “will you tell your brother for me that I never tasted anything like his ...”

Mrs. Marshall-Smith broke in with an exclamation of extreme astonishment.  “Oh—­what do you think—!  Sylvia, did you know anything about this?  Of all the crazy—­why, what under the sun—?  I always knew there was a vein of the fanatic—­any man who won’t smoke—­you may be sure there’s something unbalanced—!” She now turned the paper as she spoke and held it so that the headlines leaped out across the table: 

  MILLIONAIRE COAL OPERATOR TURNS VAST
  HOLDINGS OVER TO THE STATE

  Son of Old Peter Page Converted to Socialism

“What!” cried Morrison.  Even in the blankness of her stupefaction, Sylvia was aware of a rising note in his voice that was by no means dismay.

“Yes,” continued Mrs. Marshall-Smith, reading rapidly and disconnectedly from the paper, beginning an item and dropping it, as she saw it was not the one she was searching for, “’Mr. Page is said to have contemplated some such step for a long ...’—­m-m-m, not that ... ’well-known collector of ceramics—­Metropolitan Museum—­member of the Racquet, the Yacht, the Century, the Yale—­thirty-two—­Mother Miss Allida Sommerville of Baltimore, formerly a great beauty’—­here it is,” she stopped skimming and read consecutively:  “’Mr. Page’s plan has been worked out in all detail with experts.  A highly paid, self-perpetuating commission of labor experts, sociologists, and men of practical experience in coal-operating has been appointed to administer Mr. Page’s extremely extensive holdings.  The profits form a fund which, under the stipulations of Mr. Page’s agreement with the State, is to be used to finance a program of advanced social activities; to furnish money for mothers’ pensions, even perhaps for fathers’ pensions in the case of families too numerous to be adequately cared for on workingmen’s wages; to change the public school system of the locality into open-air schools with spacious grounds for manual activities of all kinds; greatly to raise wages; to lengthen the period of schooling before children go into remunerative occupations ...’” Mrs. Marshall-Smith looked up, said, “Oh, you know, the kind of thing such people are always talking about,” and began to skip again, “’—­extensive plans for garden cities—­public libraries—­books of the business to be open to employes—­educational future—­no philanthropy—­and so