Page:That Royle Girl (Balmer).pdf/127



was a matter of proper pride to Dads that, although the police often had arrested him, frequently had cast him at night into a police-station cell for safe-keeping until he could be haled before a magistrate in the morning, never had he been jailed; so Joan Daisy had no precedent, out of her long experience with Dads' misdemeanors, to prepare her for the consequences of Ket's imprisonment.

When Dads had dropped, abruptly, out of the usual round of his daily doings, abruptly also he had resumed his accustomed place, after a brief interval, none the worse, if none the better; but Ket not only had dropped out; he had been obliterated.

His dark and silent flat took on an aspect similar to that which had been Adele's, and which was closed, following the formal findings of the coroner's jury. For Adele's mother had come from Minneapolis and returned with the body of her daughter and had taken with her, also, the little girl who had been Adele's and Ket's. She had packed up and shipped away the furniture, except such articles as Calvin had reserved to hold in evidence; and after a decent time, probably another week or so, the flat would be offered for sublease.

Ket's flat at least remained as it had been, since he had paid his rent in advance; but no one counted upon his return to it. No one, with any money at stake, cared to venture his dollars upon Ket's acquittal. Ket's tailor, paid and well paid for three brown suits recently delivered, called confidentially upon Joan Daisy to discuss the chance of his getting his money if he finished a fourth