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 THE RED RUGS OF TARSUS

the toast as sympathetically as a young bach- elor could. 1

On the morning of Scrappie's advent, after a hurried breakfast, my doctor rushed for the Adana train. I have n't seen him since. Nor any other doctor. Miss Talbot is superb. I could n't have better care. Mrs. Dodds cooks for me herself, and serves my meals. She thinks Miss Talbot is over-careful in prescrib- ing my diet. When Mrs. Dodds brings soft- boiled eggs, she whispers: "Eat half of this quickly. Miss Talbot thinks there is only one, but I 'd like to see any one go hungry in Belle Dodds' house !" Until to-day, when I am first able to write you, they kept pillows out of my reach books, too. Herbert is too busy to be with me. He has had to go to Tarsus and twice to Adana. Two days after Scrappie came, the Major telegraphed for him to come

i A year later I told this story in a Berlin salon. One of the

guests at tea, Countess, exclaimed, "Why that boy was my

son. He wrote me about it at the time."

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