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Barbara had left the house in tears, and there had been an ugly scene with his parents. He left Long Island shortly after that, never to return, and he didn't see them again until well into fall. Barbara had gone back to Boston by then, with the girls, and he had heard recently from a friend that she was seeing the son of a key influential politician. It was the perfect choice for her, and he hoped she was happy. All he wanted was a chance to do well, and carve out a life for himself. He liked New York, but he still missed California. And more than once, he found himself thinking about Crystal. But less often now. She was simply too far away, and she wasn't real. She had been merely a rare and beautiful vision, like a wild-flower one stops to admire in the mountains, never to be seen again, but always remembered. He had had a letter from Boyd when their daughter was born, but it had said nothing about Crystal, and he'd gotten an announcement that Tom and Becky had had another baby. But all of that seemed very remote now. It was part of the war, for him, part of another life. He was wrapped up with his work for Anderson, Vincent, and Sawbrook, and he was learning a lot about the new tax laws. His real interests were in criminal work, but none of their clients had problems in that direction. He helped to set up estates, and complicated wills, and it was interesting work he could talk about with his father.

He discovered when he had dinner with his parents that night that they had gotten the invitation too. But his father said he was too busy to attend the induction.

Are you going?

I doubt it, Dad, I hardly know him. Spencer smiled at him. His father was wearing well. He had just been involved in an important criminal case and Spencer was anxious to hear more about it than he had read in the papers.

You should go. He's a good man for you to stay in touch with.

I'll try, but I don't know if I can get away from the office. Spencer smiled, looking younger than his twenty-nine years. He was tanned from weekends at the beach, and he'd been playing a lot of tennis. I feel foolish going, Dad. He really doesn't know me all that well. And I don't have time to go to Washington.

You can make time. I'm sure the firm would want you to go. Always responsibilities and obligations. It chafed at him sometimes. Life here seemed so full of what was expected. It was part of being grown up, part of being in the real world, but he wasn't always sure he liked it.

I'll see. But much to his surprise, the partner he worked for echoed his father's words a few days later. Spencer mentioned the invitation over drinks at the River Club, and his mentor suggested he go to Harrison Barclay's induction.

It's an honor to be asked.

I hardly know him, sir. It was the same thing he had said to his father, but the senior partner shook his head.

No matter. He may be important to you one day. You have to keep those things in mind. In fact, I'd like to strongly recommend it. Spencer nodded, accepting the advice, but he felt foolish when he accepted the invitation. The firm even went so far as to make reservations for him, at the Shoreham, and he went to Washington on the train, the day before the induction. The room they had taken for him was airy and large, and he grinned to himself as he sat down in a comfortable leather chair and ordered a Scotch from room service. It was a pleasant way of life, and maybe it would be fun to go to see the Barclays again. He suspected that Elizabeth would be there. He had never heard from her after she went to Vassar. She probably had other fish to fry, and he had his share of attentive ladies. He'd been out with a dozen different women in the past year. He had taken them to dinner at 21, Le Pavilion, and the Waldorf. They had gone to parties, the theater, played tennis with him in Connecticut and East Hampton, but there was no one he cared about particularly. And three years after the end of the war, everyone still seemed to be in a hurry to get married. It was not a pressing need for him, there was still a lot he wanted to sort out in his own mind. Somehow just practicing law didn't seem like the end of the line to him. He liked it better than he thought he would, but secretly he admitted to himself that it lacked excitement. He was still trying to figure out how to incorporate it with something more challenging and demanding. And at twenty-nine, he figured there was still a lot of fun in store for him before he settled down with anyone for good. He had to find the right girl first, and she hadn't come along yet.

He was just beginning to find his feet again after the interruption of the war, and the shock of his brother's death. The pain of it had begun to dim by then. Robert had been gone for four years, and his parents still talked about him a great deal, but Spencer no longer felt quite as personally responsible to replace him. He was his own person now, and there were times when he felt on top of the world, and very much in control of everything he was doing. He was lonely at times, but he wasn't even sure he minded. He liked being alone. And in spite of the fact that law hadn't been what he really wanted, he had come to enjoy what he did.

The next day dawned sunny and bright, and on a cool September morning, Spencer went to the Supreme Court Building for the formal swearing in. He wore a dark pinstriped suit, and a somber tie, and with his shining dark hair and his blue eyes, he looked very handsome. Several women turned their heads to look at him, although he seemed not to notice. And afterward, he managed to shake Justice Barclay's hand briefly before the crowd swallowed him up and he was moved along. He didn't see anyone he knew, and he was sorry his father hadn't been able to come with him.

He visited the Washington Monument that afternoon, and the Lincoln Memorial, and then went back to his hotel for a bite to eat before dressing for the party he'd been invited to that evening. The Barclays were hosting a formal dinner dance at the Mayflower Hotel to celebrate his induction.

Spencer left the hotel in black tie, and hailed a cab to take him to the party, and he waited patiently on the reception line, where he was greeted warmly by Priscilla Barclay.

How nice of you to come, Mr. Hill. Have you seen Elizabeth?

Thank you. No, I haven't.

I saw her a few minutes ago. I'm sure she'll be very happy to see you. He moved on to greet her husband then, and then moved on quickly to make room for the others in the long line behind him. He went to the bar and ordered Scotch and water, and looked around at the assembled group. Most of the men were older, and the women wore expensive gowns. It was an interesting collection of the country's well-known and most important, and he felt a sudden surge of excitement at being there. He took a sip of his drink as he recognized one of the other justices on the Supreme Court, and then watched a younger woman talking to an older man, and when she turned around, he saw that the woman was Justice Barclay's daughter. She looked much older than she had a year before, and prettier somehow, and as she smiled in recognition, he remembered how poised she had been when they last met, and how attractive. She was prettier than he remembered her, and he approached her with a smile, as her warm brown eyes seemed to light up. Her auburn hair was shorter now, and she was wearing a striking white satin dress with the summer tan she had acquired at Lake Tahoe, and it struck him forcefully that she was very attractive, a lot more so than he had remembered.

Hello, how've you been? How's Vassar?

Boring. She smiled up at him, her eyes locked in his as she grinned. I think I'm too old for college. Vassar seemed so childish to her. Within three months, she had been chafing to finish and do something else, but she still had three years left. And starting her second year, she was beginning to wonder if she'd make it through. Poughkeepsie is absolutely awful.

After California, so is New York sometimes. The winters are a bit of a jolt, aren't they? He laughed. He had complained bitterly himself the year before, but he was used to it again, and he liked the excitement of New York, which was a far cry from sleepy Poughkeepsie.

It was nice of you to come. I'm sure my father was touched, she said politely, and Spencer almost laughed. In the swirling crowd around him, of hundreds of associates and friends, it was difficult to imagine Justice Barclay being touched by the attendance of one young, unimportant lawyer.

It was nice of him to ask me. He must be very pleased with the appointment.

She smiled at him, sipping her own gin and tonic. He is. And so is my mother. She loves Washington. She was born here, you know.

I didn't. I imagine this will be fun for you too. Can you get away from school? He was admiring the smooth sweep of her shoulders as he asked, and decided he liked her new hairdo.

Not often enough. I hardly ever got to New York last year. But I'm going to try and spend some time here with them, on vacations. It's a lot easier than getting back to California. They chatted on for a little while, and as the guests began to sit down, Spencer consulted one of several seating charts and discovered that he was sitting at her table. He assumed that her mother had seen to it, and had no idea that Elizabeth had requested it herself when she went over the guest list with her mother. She'd been impressed by him the year before, and was disappointed he had never tried to reach her at Vassar. How do you like the law firm in New York? She could no longer remember which one it was, but she remembered that it was important.

I like it. He smiled as he helped her to her seat, and she laughed at him.

You sound surprised.

His eyes smiled back at her as he sat down beside her. I am. I was never all that sure that I wanted to be a lawyer.

And now you are?

More or less. I keep thinking it's going to get harder, or more challenging, but it hasn't so far. It's actually very comfortable. She nodded, and then smiled proudly in her father's direction at a table nearby.

And look what it leads to.

Not for everyone, I'm afraid. But I'm satisfied doing what I'm doing for the moment.

Have you ever thought of politics? she inquired as the first course arrived. It was lobster bisque, served with white wine, and Spencer looked at her in amusement. She still had those piercing eyes that seemed to search one out, and she wasn't afraid to ask serious questions. He had liked that about her the year before, and it struck him again now. She wasn't afraid to tackle anything, and it was something that he admired. Elizabeth took the initiative herself and moved ahead. She was a woman in command, of herself, and her surroundings, and he suspected, given the opportunity, also the people around her. She was eyeing him with interest now, intensely involved in politics herself, because of her father.

My brother had aspirations in that direction, or at least he thought so. But I'm not sure that's my cup of tea at all. The trouble was he wasn't sure yet what was.

If I were a man, that's what I would do. She sounded so sure of herself and he envied her a little bit as he laughed. She was certainly full of spunk. He remembered that the last time he had seen her, she had told him she wanted to be a lawyer.

What are you studying at Vassar?

Liberal arts. Literature. French. History. Nothing very exciting.

What would you rather do? She intrigued him with her sharp mind and direct approach. Elizabeth Barclay was certainly no shrinking violet.

Give up school and do something useful. I was thinking about coming to Washington for a while, but Father had a fit when I mentioned it. He wants me to finish college first.

That sounds sensible. You only have three more years. But it even sounded long to him as he watched her.

Have you been back to California at all?

No, I haven't. He said it with regret. I really haven't had time, and the last year has gone very quickly. She nodded, it had for her too, in some ways, and slower in others. She had gone back to San Francisco to make her debut at the Cotillion at Christmas, and for the ball her parents had given her at the Burlingame Country Club just before. And then of course she had gone to Lake Tahoe for the summer. But she was more interested in visiting New York and Washington that winter. Her parents had already invited her to Palm Beach for Christmas.

The band started up then, and Spencer invited her to dance just as they began playing Imagination, while they waited for their main course. And Spencer guided her gently to the dance floor. She danced beautifully, and he looked down at the shining auburn hair and the deeply suntanned shoulders. Everything about her suggested health and well-being and power. She told him that she was going to Europe with her parents the following summer, on the Ile de France, and asked him if he'd ever been, and he told her he hadn't. His father had promised to send him when he graduated from college, but by then the war was on, and he had enlisted right after that, and gone to the Pacific instead. She mentioned also that she was going to New York in a few weeks to visit one of her brothers. Ian Barclay worked for a law firm that was even more illustrious than the one that employed Spencer.

Do you know them? She looked up at him expectantly, looking very young and very pretty, and he began to feel the effects of the Scotch. He liked the feel of her skin beneath his hands, and for the first time he noticed her perfume as they went on dancing.

No, I don't know him. My father does though. He remembered his father saying that Barclay had been in his courtroom. You'll have to introduce me. It was the first time he had suggested anything that implied he would see her again.

I'd like to. She looked victorious and a little regal as he led her back to the table, and they sat down to dinner and talk with her parents' friends, and by the end of the evening, he felt as though he knew her a little better. She played tennis, she liked to ski, she spoke a little French, she hated dogs, and she didn't seem particularly interested in children. What she wanted in life, she admitted to him over dessert, was to accomplish something in her life, not just play bridge and have babies. And it was obvious to him that she was crazy about her father and wanted to marry someone like him, a man who was going somewhere, as she put it, not just someone content to sit in an easy chair and let life pass him by. She wanted to marry a man who was important. She was young to be that definite about it, she was not yet twenty, but she knew her own mind, and she had plenty of opportunity to meet the kind of man she wanted. And for a moment, as they left the ballroom together, he realized that she would have liked Robert a lot better than him.