6

"Look!"she complained;"I hurt it."We all lookedthe knuckle was black and blue.

"You did it.Tom."she said accusingly.

"I know you didn't mean to.but you did do it.That's what I get for marrying a brute of a man,a great,big.hulking physical specimen of a-."

"I hate that word hulking."objected Tom crossly."even in kidding."

"Hulking,"insisted Daisy.

Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once,unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that wasnever quite chatter,that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of alldesire.They were here.and they accepted Tom and me.making only a polite pleasant effort to entertain or tobe entertained.They knew that presently dinner would be over and a little later the evening too would be overand casually put away.It was sharply different from the West,where an evening was hurried from phase tophase toward its close.in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of themoment itself.

"You make me feel uncivilized,Daisy,"I confessed on my second glass of corky but rather impressive claret.

"Can't you talk about crops or something?"I meant nothing in particular by this remark,but it was taken up inan unexpected way.

"Civilization's going to pieces."broke out Tom violently.

"I've gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things.Have you read The Rise of the Colored Empires'by thisman Goddard?""Why.no,"I answered,rather surprised by his tone

"Well.it's a fine book.and everybody ought to read it.The idea is if we don't look out the white race willbewill be utterly submerged.It's all scientific stuff:it's been proved.""Tom's getting very profound,"said

Daisy,with an expression of unthoughtful sadness.

"He reads deep books with long words in them.What was that word we --.

"Well,these books are all scientific,"insisted Tom,glancing at her impatiently.

"This fellow has worked out the whole thing.It's up to us,who are the dominant race,to watch out or theseother races will have control of things."

"We've got to beat them down."whispered Daisy.winking ferociously toward the fervent sun."You ought to live in California."began Miss Baker,but Tom interrupted her by shifting heavily in hischair.

"This idea is that we're Nordics.I am,and you are,and you are,and."After an infinitesimal hesitation heincluded Daisy with a slight nod,and she winked at me again.

"And we've produced all the things that go to make civilization -oh,science and art,and all that.Dsee?"There was something pathetic in his concentration,as if his complacency,more acute than cnot enough to him any more.When,almost immediately,the telephone rang inside and the butler