ne elaborate hat stuck in the back of a seat, and one silk tie that had fallen out of the wire rack he kicked under the row ahead. He had an impulse to go af

entr'acte before. Forbes knew it was a drink he had gone out for the moment he

He was not in the lobby, nor among the men smoking on the sidewalk or dashing across the street to one of

ger glance with such blank indifference that F

though he knew that he could have but a few puffs of it. And it was

y oblivious of each other as the two traditional Englishmen who wer

igarette and made to leave that Forbes mustered

but aren't you Mr

yck-simply that,

the abrupt brevity of

ou don't re

erest. If he were a snob he b

inter-I had a cramp, you know. I cut him dead two weeks later. When I knew what I had done I wished he had let m

n Manila.

ow the hell was I to know you all dolled up like this? I used to see you in uniform with cap and bronze buttons and sword and puttees. You were a lieutenant then. I dare say you're

thank

afé. With one foot on the rail, one elbow on the bar, and one elbow crooked upward, they toasted each

u alone-or with somebody? Don't a

rbes. "I'm alone, a castaw

e rescuing party. Ho

Island. I don't have to report for a week

g. There's nothing going

een, and smiled. "I saw three ve'y ch

e 'em. Come a

em is your wife. A

le I have my heal

beginning to feel afraid that yo

ok his head

e marry Per

r name? Wel

you wouldn't ask why.

n't look

y. She's like a yacht. You think it costs a lot to buy, but wait till you count the upkeep.

romi

there, when I was blue and sick and a million miles from home. I suppose there's nothing makes a hit with a man like calling on him when he's sick. You got your hooks on me that way, and I'm yours to boss aroun

Southern idea of ceremonial courtesy, and he suggested that Ten Eyck had better ask the permission of the ladies b

love the extremes of society. I can get along with the highest, an

the women and the two other men. Forbes was too much perturbed to catch a singl

t as a brilliant soldier and a life-saver,

age with nothing more than a wren-l

Forbes into con

es not only rescued me from the depths, but he told me

ittle more cordia

very nic

hat they neither offended nor excited her. But Miss

ells me I am fatally beautiful, and God knows t

, yet he could hardly deny it. Nor could he deny the plump lady's cl

ush!" The party, having been once rebuked, fell into silence. Forbes rose to return to his o

thing. He was posted at the side of this creature who had fascinated him

, a queer little fellow he was, whispered a comment to Persis. She laughed and answered it.

-pigeon with a silencered revolver a man

uld invent a silenc

ce, and quietude settled down once more like a pall. At the end of

doing afte

thi

ey-trottin

" Forbes gasped.

people," said Pe

of the embonpoint, whose first name

ncisco, six years or so ago, slumming parties were taking it up along the 'Barbary Coast.' And

. "People have gone stark mad ove

Persis. "You know it's healthier than

pensive," said th

ie insisted. "It's unf

Persis, with

n you, my dear, of course; you dance it harmlessly enou

is learning it,

ie gasped. "I gave

w that he was always intervening between

out of the churches. The turkey-trot is only vulgar when vulgar people dance it, and they'd be vulgar anyway, anywhere. The trot has set people to ji

Willie insisted, with a peevishness that wa

my dear," Persis answere

dear." It might mean nothing,