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Rh a little neater, if you can. I’d hate to have a girl see the inside of that suitcase, the way it is. Where shall I put my cigars? They’ll make everything smell, wherever I put them. All my clothes seem to smell of cooking, or starch, or something. I don’t know what Mahailey does to them,” he ended bitterly.

Ralph looked outraged. “Well, of all ingratitude! Mahailey’s been ironing your damned old shirts for a week!”

“Yes, yes, I know. Don’t rattle me. I forgot to put any handkerchiefs in my trunk, so you’ll have to get the whole bunch in somewhere.”

Mr. Wheeler appeared in the doorway, his Sunday black trousers gallowsed up high over a white shirt, wafting a rich odor of bayrum from his tumbled hair. He held a thin folded paper delicately between his thick fingers.

“Where is your bill-book, son?”

Claude caught up his discarded trousers and extracted a square of leather from the pocket. His father took it and placed the bit of paper inside with the bank notes. “You may want to pick up some trifle your wife fancies,” he said. “Have you got your railroad tickets in here? Here is your trunk check Dan brought back. Don’t forget, I’ve put it in with your tickets and marked it C. W., so you’ll know which is your check and which is Enid’s.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

Claude had already drawn from the bank all the money he would need. This additional bank check was Mr. Wheeler’s admission that he was sorry for some sarcastic remarks he had made a few days ago, when he discovered that Claude had reserved a stateroom on the Denver express. Claude had