Page:MacGrath--The luck of the Irish.djvu/336

 "She is your wife? Then he lied to me. God knows I'm an outcast, but I'm not fool enough to touch anything like that. I thought she was one of those women who play for big stakes. He swore on his oath that she'd run away from him. He offered me a thousand rupees to hold her for a few days. How was I to know that he was lying?"

"Nothing doing with that line of talk. You can tell a good woman when you see her."

"I only saw her the night they brought her here. One of my girls took care of her."

"Did you get your thousand?" ironically.

"Yes."

"Well, then, I wont offer to buy you a new banister. I want to know just what happened."

"You're a strong man. When you flung him through the banister he fell upon his face in the lower hall. I had him carried to the Chinese quarters in the rear and held him there until I could get him to the hospital without having the police nosing around. He was in the hospital ten days. He came out badly disfigured."

"That's the best news I've heard in days. Then the ladies won't break their necks in the future running after him? How badly disfigured?"

"His nose and jaw were broken. His face will always be twisted. Is that all?"

"All, Isobel, all that I wish to know."

"You won't report me to the police?"

"I guess not. You and I know why. A decent woman doesn't want this kind of a story tagging