“You never let me know you’d be here,” Essie complained; “but I suppose I ought to be glad to see you anyway—­after four months without a line.  Jasper, Mr. Daniel Culser.”  The younger of the men on the sofa, a stolidly handsome individual with hard, blue eyes, rose with an over-emphasized composure.  “Mr. Penny, extremely pleased.”  Jasper Penny was irritated by the other’s instant identification, and he nodded bluntly.  “Lambert Babb and Myrtilla Lewis,” Essie continued indifferently.  Babb, an individual of inscrutable age, with ashen whiskers and a blinking, weak vision in a silvery face, was audibly delighted.  Myrtilla Lewis smiled professionally over her expanse of bewildering silk plaid.  “Wine in the cooler,” Essie added, and Daniel Culser moved to where a silver bucket reposed by a tray of glasses and broken, sugared rusks.  Jasper Penny refused the offered drink, and found a chair apart from the others.  A moody silence enveloped him which he found impossible to break, and an increasing uneasiness spread over the room.

“Well,” Essie Scofield commanded, “say something.  You look as black as an Egyptian.  What’ll my friends think of you?  I suppose it doesn’t matter any more what it is to me; but you might play at being polite.”

“Don’t chip at a man like that,” Myrtilla advised.  “Mr. Penny has a right to talk or not.”  She smiled more warmly at him, and he saw that she had had too much champagne.  The room reeked with the thin, acrid odour of the wine, and a sickly perfume of vanilla essence.  Essie, as usual, had a glass of her favourite drink—­orange juice and French brandy—­on the floor beside her, the brandy bottle and fresh oranges conveniently near.  His repulsion for her deepened until it seemed as if actual fingers were compressing his throat, stopping his breath.  He wondered suddenly how far he was responsible for her possible degeneration.  But he had not been the first; her admission of that fact had in the beginning attracted him to an uncommon frankness in her peculiar make-up.  He was willing to assume his fault, to pay for it, whatever payment was possible, and escape....  Not only from her, but from all that she embodied, from himself—­what he had been—­as much as anything else.

“You are an Ironmaster,” Mr. Babb finally announced; “in fact, one of our greatest manufacturers.  Now, Mr. Penny, what is your personal opinion of engine as against the public coach?  Will the railroad survive the experimental stage, and are such gentlemen as yourself behind it?”

“I saw in the Ledger some days back,” Daniel Culser added, “that your arm had been broken travelling by steam.”