Which was true enough.  Only the desire to “see it through” socially was not driving Jack MacRae.  He had a different target, and his eye did not wander far from the mark.  And perhaps because of this, chance and his social gadding about gave him the opening he sought when he least expected to find one.

To be explicit, he happened to be one of an after-theater party at an informal supper dance in the Granada, which is to Vancouver what the Biltmore is to New York or the Fairmont to San Francisco,—­a place where one can see everybody that is anybody if one lingers long enough.  And almost the first man he met was a stout, ruddy-faced youngster about his own age.  They had flown in the same squadron until “Stubby” Abbott came a cropper and was invalided home.

Stubby fell upon Jack MacRae, pounded him earnestly on the back, and haled him straight to a table where two women were sitting.

“Mother,” he said to a plump, middle-aged woman, “here’s Silent John MacRae.”

Her eyes lit up pleasantly.

“I’ve heard of you,” she said, and her extended hand put the pressure of the seal of sincerity on her words.  “I’ve wanted to thank you.  You can scarcely know what you did for us.  Stubby’s the only man in the family, you know.”

MacRae smiled.

“Why,” he said easily, “little things like that were part of the game.  Stubb used to pull off stuff like that himself now and then.”

“Anyway, we can thank God it’s over,” Mrs. Abbott said fervently.  “Pardon me,—­my daughter, Mr. MacRae.”

Nelly Abbott was small, tending to plumpness like her mother.  She was very fair with eyes of true violet, a baby-doll sort of young woman, and she took possession of Jack MacRae as easily and naturally as if she had known him for years.  They drifted away in a dance, sat the next one out together with Stubby and a slim young thing in orange satin whose talk ran undeviatingly upon dances and sports and motor trips, past and anticipated.  Listening to her, Jack MacRae fell dumb.  Her father was worth half a million.  Jack wondered how much of it he would give to endow his daughter with a capacity for thought.  A label on her program materialized to claim her presently.  Stubby looked after her and grinned.  MacRae looked thoughtful.  The girl was pretty, almost beautiful.  She looked like Dolores Ferrara, dark, creamy-skinned, seductive.  And MacRae was comparing the two to Dolores’ advantage.

Nelly Abbott was eying MacRae.

“Tessie bores you, eh?” she said bluntly.

MacRae smiled.  “Her flow of profound utterance carries me out of my depth, I’m afraid,” said he.  “I can’t follow her.”

“She’d lead you a chase if you tried,” Stubby grinned and sauntered away to smoke.

“Is that sarcasm?” Nelly drawled.  “I wonder if you are called Silent John because you stop talking now and then to think?  Most of us don’t, you know.  Tell me,” she changed the subject abruptly, “did you know Norman Gower overseas?”