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212 "I think I can guess it. Madame Blumenthal has asked you to come and check her numbers for her at roulette again."

"Not at all!" cried Pickering, with a smile of triumph. "She says that she plays no more, for the present. She has asked me to come and take tea with her this evening."

"Ah, then," I said, very gravely, "of course you can't leave Homburg."

He answered nothing, but looked askance at me, as if he were expecting me to laugh. "Urge it strongly," he said in a moment. "Say it's my duty,—command me."

I did n't quite understand him, but, feathering the shaft with a harmless expletive, I told him that unless he followed my advice, I would never speak to him again. He got up, stood before me, and struck the ground with his stick. "Good!" he cried. "I wanted an occasion to break a rule,—to leap an obstacle. Here it is! I stay!"

I made him a mock bow for his energy. "That's very fine," I said; "but now, to put you in a proper mood for Madame Blumenthal's tea, we 'll go and listen to the band play Schubert under the lindens." And we walked back through the woods.

I went to see Pickering the next day, at his inn,