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 Europe, and you're always expectin' to go there yourself some day, so I can't seem to get it out o' my head this is Europe. Well, I expect it's a good deal the same thing in the long run—both of 'em just dirt and old ruins and backward kind of people mainly, I guess. I leave it to my wife and Babe to know all about the history and picturesqueness of it. She and Babe certainly have read up on it, too, though Babe won't say much. She" he checked himself, chuckling a little painfully. "I expect I got to quit calling her 'Babe.' She certainly gave it to me red hot for calling her that in front of you this afternoon!"

He chuckled again, but without much mirth, and for a moment or two his cheerfulness of expression was gone; he looked troubled. "I'm afraid she isn't havin' as good a time as I kind of hoped she would," he said, almost as if to himself; then with renewed briskness he asked, to the young man's surprise: "You seen anything o' Mrs. Mummero since you been here?"

"No," Ogle replied shortly; and prompted by a sudden queer suspicion, he said: "Have you?"

Then, with a pained alarm that became all too quickly an unhappy conviction, he saw the broad