Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/416

 day on the steamer? I'm sure it must have been Mr. Ogle that patted your shoulder for you on a public corner this afternoon."

He stared at her incredulously. "Patted my shoulder?" he murmured. "On a public corner?" It seemed to daze him that she should have used the word "public," and he repeated it as in deep perplexity. "Public? Did you say a public corner, Mamma?" Then, with a visible effort, he became reproachful and spoke with a quiet severity. "I'm afraid you're a little confused. I never said I sat on the boat-deck with Mr. Ogle or anybody else, or that he's been patting my shoulder on a public corner; and I should be pleased to be informed who's been talking such nonsense to you. I only alluded to Mr. Ogle's being at this Koos Koos affair."

"He was?" she cried. "You dare to stand there and tell me he was with you?"

Tinker's grasp of the playwright's arm tightened in one of those appealing signals not uncommon when men, battling with ladies, become desperate. "Why, I'll leave it to him, himself," he said. "You tell her, Ogle."

But Ogle was spared this suddenly projected or-