Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/22

 Hale leaves his home to go 'out of town,' he's going to get satisfaction or get Hale."

Cuncliffe sat down and leaned over, flecking an imperceptible speck from his dancing shoe; Gregg lit his cigarette, his slender, strong hands quivering in a manner strange to him.

"What are you telling me all this for, Jim?" he demanded directly at last.

"Nyman passed it to me, because I knew Hale and the family."

"So you're passing it on to me."

"I hardly know them at all; you're a friend of theirs and didn't you say something about going to a dance up in Evanston to-night?"

"I'm going with Bill," Gregg said. "He's the friend there. I should think Bill would be the one to" but he stopped, ashamed of himself.

"Bill take care of this?" Jim said, smiling grimly as he glanced toward the door which Gregg himself had so carefully closed. "You don't want Bill even to know about it, do you? You bet not; you know Bill, Gregg. Can you just imagine him trying to tackle this? First he'd be knocked absolutely flat; he'd take the count; and when he came to, he'd have to start reforming everybody concerned and work up a strong penitential sentiment. Good old Bill; he thinks the world can run on ten commandments and fourteen points; nothing but open alliances, openly arrived at. It's not only impossible for Bill but figure where it would land him to cut into that mix-up; he'd lose his Marjorie sure."

"His Marjorie?"

"Where've you been recently? You never heard of Bill looking twice at a girl before; but he's her