Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/192

180 him. It puzzled me a good deal, not that I gave him something to laugh at, but that I was satisfied to sit there beside him, and have him talk to me in his cool and careless tone. The solemn truth of the matter was I knew that I liked it.

Then I suddenly remembered my clothes. I'd make a hit with that irreproachable family, I knew, in Copperhead Kate's waist that fitted too soon and a skirt with a three-inch hike. And I had a great deal more to say to my Hero-Man. So I began to hedge.

"That family rather frightens me," I told him. "They might not care for my going-away get-up."

"Then we immediately eliminate the family," he announced, "since, as you intimate, familiarity may possibly breed contempt." And still again he laughed. "And abjuring one's family always tends to make it more interesting, and much less embarrassing, don't you think?"

I couldn't quite see what he was drifting at, but, luckily, we had no time for more talk, for we had pulled up at the Harraton and a uniformed doorman was touching his cap and at the same time trying to take the club-bag out of my hand. But I hung on to the bag. "Shall we go up?" my Hero-Man asked, as he