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 Koos with a woman his wife didn't know, or something serious like that. Anyhow, he got off easy—comparatively!"

Again he would have turned away; but he was arrested by the pallid appearance of his young acquaintance. "What's the matter with you?" he asked. "You haven't got anybody to boil you in tar if you break away and eat dinner out, one night in your life, have you? You look like a man that's goin' to be sick."

Ogle shook his head. "The change of climate, perhaps," he said; and he moved to the stairway.

Tinker was solicitous. "Listen! Don't go and get sick 'way off here away from home and everybody like this. You let me know if you feel anything comin' on, young man, and I'll look after you."

His hearty voice showed a friendly concern, and his solicitude was evidently genuine; but Ogle returned only an indistinct "Thank you," and went on up the stairs. A moment later, when he opened the door of Mme. Momoro's salon, upon her bidding, he was even paler than he had been.