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"What did you do, bet that you could pick me up?"

"Something like that."

"Sorry to disappoint you and cause you to lose," I said.

"Oh, but I haven't. At least, not yet." he said, stepping closer. "That's what you think," I said, and started out.

"Wait. Don't leave yet. Tell me more about your work. Really. Maybe I can help you. I know a lot about the people here. I represent many of them. I heard some of what Dad told you. I even represent our landlord. Mrs. Montgomery," he added.

That gave me enough pause to give him encouragement.

"Come on, sit for a while. You want something more sensible to drink, a soft drink, ice water?"

"Ice water would be nice." I said.

"Me, too. Jennings." he called, and the house servant who had come out to fetch me appeared as if he had been waiting in the wings. "Would you be so kind as to bring us both tumblers of ice water?"

"Very good. sir," Jennings said.

Thatcher sat where his father had been sifting, and I took my place on the settee again.

"So what is it you're up to. exactly?" Thatcher asked.

I hesitated. Somehow, I sensed that it would be far more difficult to fool him than it was to fool Dr. Anderson or Mr. and Mrs, Eaton. He seemed skeptical before he had heard even a word.

"I'm doing a research project for my sociology class, a study of different segments of our society. I decided to concentrate on the Palm Beach world because, from what I have read, it seems very different from the rest of America."

He laughed. "That, my dear Isabel, is the biggest understatement I have ever heard. Seems very different?"

I felt myself turn crimson. "I just meant it as a figure of speech." I said sharply.

"No, no, you're right. You just don't know how right you are. This is... more than another world. It's another planet. I concluded a lawsuit last week in which I represented a Palm Beach hotel that was being sued by a guest who had to keep her shar-pei in a recreational vehicle in the hotel parking lot. She ran the engine all night to keep up the air conditioner, and the engine stalled. The dog suffered in the heat for a few hours, and she brought it to a vet who said it was dehydrated. So she sued the hotel."

"And?"

"What do you think?" he asked. "The hotel offered to pay the vet bill and some ridiculous number to compensate her for her anxiety. Before that, I had to take the deposition of the vet, the parking lot attendants, and an expert on the recreational vehicle's engine and air conditioner.'

He laughed. "It wasn't exactly what I envisioned I would be doing when I passed the bar exam."

"Then why did you do it?" I shot back.

Jennings brought us our tumblers of ice water. and I thanked him. He nodded and started to remove the champagne buckets and the tray of caviar. Thatcher sipped his water and waited until Jennings left.

"Money, I guess," he finally replied. "You're a gun for hire?"

He laughed again, "Don't tell me you're one of those people who believes the responsibility for most of our social ills lies at the feet of the country's lawyers," he said.

I sipped my water. "Maybe not most. Only seventy to eighty percent."

That brought a loud, deep laugh. "How old are you?" he followed.

"Why?"

"You seem a little too self-assured for a co-ed. What year of college did you say you were in?"

"I didn't say."

"Well?"