Page:Harold Macgrath--The girl in his house.djvu/106

 It was half after two in the morning when Armitage found himself alone with Bob and his wife. Bob lighted a cigar and walked about for a space.

"I don't know how it came to pass, but Betty and I have grown very fond of that girl next door. We've formed a kind of protectorate over her. She puzzles us. She's a type we haven't run into before. She is both worldly wise and surprisingly innocent. She'll air her views of Turgeniev one moment and then ask why a woman shouldn't go to a restaurant alone at night if she wanted to. We know why she can't. Cities and men have made it impossible."

"Don't beat about the bush with me, Bob. You're angry because I went over there the way I did."

"Why the dickens did you do it, then?"

"Don't you folks trust me?" Armitage asked, rather pathetically.

"We'd trust you anywhere, Jim, in any situation," said Betty. "That isn't it."

"I understand. I was simply hypnotized. What do you suppose she said to me? 'Let's go home!' When I followed her I did not realize what I was doing. I'm a