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 "Why didn't you stop me? You call yourself my friend," bellowed Hilary Vance.

"Stop you ? Why, you were superb! I wouldn't have stopped you for the world. From the endearments you lavished on the young lady I gathered that your vocabulary is the largest an impassioned lover ever possessed. Stop you? Check the idealist in his flights? Never! Besides, you would fill yourself up with that gas. By jove, it did stimulate your imagination. There was no doubt about that!"

"Oh, what a fool I must have been!" groaned Hilary Vance with immense conviction. "If I marry this girl my life is blighted."

"It certainly is. But you're not going to be such a fool as to marry her," said Mr. James.

"Her lawyer says I am," said Hilary Vance in a tone of despair.

"Her lawyer?" said Mr. James in some surprise.

"Yes; she's been to her lawyer, and he says she has a tremendous case against me—overwhelming. It's not only last night, but I have given her flowers, and I took her to music-halls," moaned Hilary Vance.