midday
After the solid costliness of Wartrace Hall and the thirty-mile spin in a high-powered gentleman 's roadster , which was only one of the three high-priced motor-carriages in the Wartrace garage , Evan Blount was not surprised to learn that his father was registered in permanence for one of the private dining-room suites at the Inter-Mountain . It was amply evident that the simple life which had been the rule of the `` Circle-Bar '' ranch household had become a thing of the past ; and though he charged the new order of things to the ambition of his father 's wife , he could hardly cavil at it , since he was himself a sharer in the comforts and luxuries . For the first few days after the father and son had gone into bachelor quarters at the Inter-Mountain , the returned exile was left almost wholly to his own devices . Beyond giving him a good many introductions , as the opportunities for them offered in the stirring life of the hotel , his father made few demands upon him , and they were together only at luncheon and dinner , the midday meal being usually served in their suite , while for the dinner they met by appointment in the hotel _ café _ . Notwithstanding this hospitable neglect on the part of his father , Evan Blount suffered no lack of the social opportunities . Gantry was back , and , in addition to a most ready availability as a social sponsor , the traffic manager was both able and willing . Almost before he had time to realize it , Blount had been put in touch with the busy , breezy life of the Western city , was exchanging nods or hand-shakings with more people than he had ever known in Cambridge or Boston , and was receiving more invitations than he could possibly accept .