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 compassionate and comprehending. On his departure they shook hands warmly. 'Captain Jones,' he said, 'is an extraordinary man, something like Arabian literature itself, from which one may take either harm or good. I beg of you, Miss Bardeen, take only the good, but...' their eyes locked together...'if every...if anything...if this business relation' you are enjoying with Mr. Jones should...if you want advice...' He cleared his throat and amazed her after the fashion of a widowed man by assuring her he had loved his wife Prunella very dearly. Then he continued to beg her at any time to come to him for anything. She naïvely thought he referred to a possibility of the adventurous Mr. Jones leaving the country without paying off his secretary.

'It is zero weather, Cousin Lanice. Surely you will not be so foolish as to risk a lung inflammation in an open sleigh.'

'I have my mink pelisse, Cousin Poggy.'

'If you must go, do put goose-grease on your chest.'

'Oh, no.' (Had she not under her basque secreted the minute gold vial of attar of rose?)

'Surely, if you insist, you had best take Snowball and Favorite, with our sleigh. There is no reason why Captain Jones should be at the expense of a hired conveyance. I assure you these livery hacks raised out West in Ohio are never safe in the cities.'

'But he knows how to handle horses.'

'The fair sex, too, from what I hear.'