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 CHAPTER VII

POLLY APPROVES

Practice over, Laurie set out to find Ned. He was very low in his mind, was Laurie, and he wanted comfort in the worst way. But Ned wasn't in the room. The door of No. 15, across the corridor, was half ajar, and through it issued the voice of Kewpie. "That you, Nid?" inquired Kewpie. "Say, come in here. I've—"

"No!" replied Laurie emphatically as he hurried, toward the stairs. Kewpie Proudtree was the last person in the whole world he wanted to hold converse with just then. In fact, he wasn't sure that he would be able to control himself in Kewpie's presence. Murder, he reflected gloomily, had been committed for less cause than he had!

He set out toward the Widow Deane's, going the long way around, since he had no heart for Bob Starling's questions and surmises regarding Mr. A. G. Goupil. He had so thoroughly for