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76 "No," said the Vice.

"Nor do I," replied Buster, "but this will make it as plain as yourself, Sir. (No offence, of course.) The nine Virtuous Children, secure in the knowledge of their unimpeachable and unassailable Virtue, fled with such dispatch that the pursuing and Abominable Policeman got the Stitch. D'you see? He got the stitch in Time and it saved the Nine."

"Good Tosh," commended the President.

Buster bowed his thanks of the appreciation of his effort.

"I know a lot about Virtue," he admitted. "It's like Beauty, you know, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'."

"Don't be vain, Buster," adjured the President. "What do men want with beautiful eyes? 'Sides, yours are very or'nary."

Buster wept. "Misunderstood!" he wailed. Mis-understood!"

"Who was she?" inquired the Vice.

Buster positively yelped in his anguish.

"You wrong me, Gentlemen," he said, with quiet dignity. "Beauty does not exist until it is